With the characteristically human abilities to reason and imagine comes, apparently inevitably, the longing for imaginary but plausible places and conditions where everything is exactly as it should be and all our needs and desires are satisfied, including the need not to be jaded by satisfaction.Professor Fred E. Baumann looks at what some philosophers have had to say on this subject, mostly in the form of stories about utopias. Five are written by great philosophers and the last by a challenging, nearly contemporary American scholar. All have exerted great influence on the history of thought or have expressed influential currents of thought. Professor Baumann's lectures not only examine these texts, but also address the results of attempting to put these utopias into practice.
Lecture 1 Introduction to Visions of Utopia
Lecture 2 The Republic: Part 1
Lecture 3 The Republic: Part 2
Lecture 4 The Republic: Part 3
Lecture 5 Utopia: Part 1
Lecture 6 Utopia: Part 2
Lecture 7 New Atlantis
Lecture 8 The Social Contract: Part 1
Lecture 9 The Social Contract: Part 2
Lecture 10 Rousseau in Practice: Jacobins and Communal Utopians
Lecture 11 Marx: Part 1
Lecture 12 Marx: Part 2
Lecture 13 Walden Two
Lecture 14 Conclusion