Nomos and Platonism in More's Utopia

Abstract

This essay, following an existing train of scholarship working to make sense of the Platonic connection to Utopia, argues for nomos as a useful angle in furthering this understanding. Raphael's approach to politics combines with the Utopian social system to suggest a highly Platonic vision of nomos, whereby social norms are absorbed into an essentialized nature, stripped of all arbitrariness and therefore, ostensibly, perfectly rational. The result is a sterile regime that fails to acknowledge the whimsical elements necessary to the human soul and therefore also necessary to actual human societies.