SOURCE: "The Mode of Production of the Utopians: Criticism," in Thomas More and His Utopia, translated by H. J. Stenning, A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1927, pp. 204-14.

Kautsky, as the following chapter from his book demonstrates, is known among More scholars for presenting the first significant argument that More's Utopia described and advocated a socialist state. Below, he contrasts More's "communist" Utopia with the aims of modern Socialism.

Nobody with any knowledge of the subject would assert that More's aims are in complete agreement with the tendencies of modern scientific Socialism, which is based on two factors: the development of the proletariat as a class and the development of large-scale machine production, which enlists science in its service and to-day imposes a scheme of systematically organised social labour within each undertaking. Large-scale industry constitutes the technical foundation upon which, as modern Socialism holds, the proletariat will shape production in...