Utopia by Thomas More: A Study of the Ideal Society and Its Influences, Slides of Human Resource Management

Download Utopia by Thomas More: A Study of the Ideal Society and Its Influences and more Slides Human Resource Management in PDF only on Docsity! Announcements • Papers due Mon – Don’t forget turnitin.com – Must be submitted in manila folder with essays from previous quarter – Follow HUM mechanics • Don’t procrastinate! – Give 24 hour turn-around for email questions Docsity.com Lecture 4: Utopia Imaopqritvary QGAILMIOE Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536) • “the Prince of the Humanists” • 1509 – Encomium Moriae = “Praise of Folly” or “Praise of More” • Ambiguous meaning of Utopia: – Eu-topia = happy place – Ou-topia = no place • Is Utopia an ideal, perfect society? Is it a joke? Docsity.com The New World? • New World as blank screen • Litotes: figures of speech in which you make a certain statement by denying its opposite. – “Well, is she pretty?” – “She’s not ugly.” • Litotes’ meaning depends on interpretation and context. • What defines the new world? What defines the old world? Docsity.com Generic Influences • Utopia influenced by travel literature, explorers’ letters, handbook for princes • Most important = Plato’s dialogues • The dialogues of Utopia: – More vs hythloday – Book 1 vs Book 2 – Erasmus vs More Docsity.com Hythloday’s Social Theory • Causal & mechanistic view of society • Emphasis on behavioral modification • Economy  culture  society – Example = oligopoly (67) • Polylerites = Practical models of society Docsity.com Theory vs Practice (Hythloday vs Morus) Duties of a prince according to Hythloday: – King should reform his vices – Should not harm anyone else especially financially – Raise his subjects with the right values – Be tough on crime & only enact just laws “If you cannot transform things for the better, you can at least make sure that they are no worse than necessary. For you can’t hope to make everything perfect unless you only have perfect people to deal with – which isn’t very likely to be the case for a few years yet!” (84) Docsity.com