Essay On Private Property In Thomas More's Utopia

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In Thomas More’s Utopia, an ideal human society, known as Utopia, is described by the fictional character Raphael Hythloday. Hythloday claims that Utopia is an ideal human society in which all of the citizens of the community work together for the betterment of the community. Essentially, his claims reveal that a society advances together if the private interests of the citizens are the same as the interests of the community. However, private property is concerned solely with the advancement’s of one’s own wellbeing, not the society as a whole. Therefore, private property is destructive to human society because it does not aid in the advancement of human society; it actually harms the society. The destruction caused by the presence of private property reveals much about the way humans naturally act because one man’s gain directly results in another man’s loss. The arguments presented in Thomas More’s Utopia regarding the idea that private property is destructive of human society reveal that humans are naturally selfish creatures that enjoy seeing others fail due to their own success. More’s…show more content…
In Utopia, all houses and property are identical “so there is nothing private anywhere” (46). The way the society is built does not allow for anything private. This lack of privacy creates equality because it requires everybody to have essentially identical property. Therefore, men are unable to differentiate themselves in terms of their estate. Also, the lack of private property causes every citizen to share everything equally and makes it so “that no one can ever be reduced to poverty or forced to beg” (59). Abolishing private property automatically creates balance between citizens. This balance automatically prohibits men from gaining too much power and wealth. The absence of private property in Utopia restrains men’s ability to pursue their selfish desires of

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