SOURCE: "Philosophical Reality and Human Construction in the Utopia," in Moreana, Vol. 9/10, No. 39, September, 1973, pp. 15-23.

In the following essay, Morgan examines More's treatment of the theme of "the natural" versus "the artificial" in Utopia, emphasizing his concern with "the distinguishing of true from false values."

In More's imaginary commonwealth the structure of Catholic feudal Europe is overwhelmingly challenged. There is no inherited social hierarchy, no single approved religion. Economic and political equality are maintained by the institutions of communism and the election of public officials; material parity is assured by uniform dress, lodging, and meals. Utopia is a radical change from the society mercilessly anatomized in the first book.

The chief question about Utopia is the extent to which we, and More, find sympathetic this radical reorganization. That Utopia is a perfect ideal for a Christian is clearly untenable: suicide, for example, is even hypothetically acceptable only...