Uma outra filosofia: a utopia humanista de Thomas More

Abstract

In this PhD dissertation I try to present Utopia as a satire against certain Renaissance theologians and philosophers. The narrative indicates the mistake of some of More's contemporaries, represented by Raphael Hythlodeus, of interpreting Platonic works exclusively from a perspective reliant on medieval Aristotelian scholasticism. Based on this reading of Plato, Raphael advocates a philosophy independent from and superior to rhetoric, politics and ethics, analogous to the one advocated by the Neoplatonists of Florence such as Pico della Mirandola. For him, the philosopher does not need rhetorical devices to persuade, nor bother to get involved with the imperfections of others in politics, or aspire to become a better person. He is already a sage, and his alleged possession of the truth is enough for him. Thomas More, by contrast, discreetly presents "another philosophy" in which those disciplines are integrated symbiotically, and in which moral and intellectual perfection becomes the goal the philosopher must try to reach, paradoxically, not deluding himself with the idea that this will be accomplished. More's Humanistic philosophy is based, in short, on the sum of the propositions of four major influences on his intellectual life: Plato, Lucian of Samosata, Cicero and Erasmus. These two conceptions of philosophy, More's and Hytlodeus', one ostentatious and ambitious, the other modest and hidden, are opposed throughout the book