OLLI-PHIL-5020 - Utopias & Dystopias

Course Description

The concept of utopia – a society without conflict in which all people’s needs are met and they live in harmony – has intrigued us for more than 2000 years. Just as surely, there are those among us convinced that any place that a substantial number of people would find utopic, others would find unlivable. And worse yet is the certainty that others have that a place set up as a utopia would become, whether quickly or slowly, a dystopia - a place of oppression, good only for the chosen few. This course will review historical views of utopia, take a gander at some of the attempts to create them in practice, and consider the rise of dystopian fiction, both 100 years ago and again in the recent past. Along the way, the class will explore what might to be necessary conditions for a utopia and design our own – or at least, try to!