Aristotle and Utopia

Aristotle and utopia may seem an odd combination. Anthologies of utopian texts do not contain passages from Aristotle’s writings. He also typically does not feature in histories of utopia. Nonetheless, a close reading of the Politics reveals that Aristotle had an extensive and rather distinctive interest in the enterprise of imagining utopias or ideal cities. The peculiarity of his exploration of utopia lies in its multifaceted approach. He combines critical assessments of some of his predecessors’ ideal cities with the creation of several of his own. This article explores the hypothesis that Aristotle’s lengthy and varied analysis of ideal cities plays a crucial, though not obvious, role in the history of utopia. The relevance of his speculation lies in identifying (i) distinct ways of conceptualizing the activity of imagining a utopia and (ii) themes and concerns fundamental to designing it. However, the importance of Aristotle’s place in the history of utopia is not primarily due to his direct impact on later utopists – his major influence is limited to a handful of Renaissance authors. Instead, his significance lies predominantly in the fact that he was one of the very first thinkers to recognize and articulate key elements of the utopian endeavour. This study examines the points of contact between Aristotle’s utopias and representative modern/contemporary utopias and dystopias. It aims not to institute strict parallelisms between these works and the Politics but to show how they share some of the ‘essential ingredients’ of utopian literature.