Utopia is placed in the New World and More links Raphael's travels in with Amerigo Vespucci's real life voyages of discovery. for in courts they will not bear with a man's holding his peace or conniving at what others do: a man must barefacedly approve of the worst counsels and consent to the blackest designs, so that he would pass for a spy, or, possibly, for a traitor, that did but coldly approve of such wicked practices More seems to contemplate the duty of philosophers to work around and in real situations and, for the sake of political expediency, work within flawed systems to make them better, rather than hoping to start again from first principles.
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Plato doubtless did well foresee, unless kings themselves would apply their minds to the study of philosophy, that else they would never thoroughly allow the council of philosophers, being themselves before, even from their tender age, infected and corrupt with perverse and evil opinions. Raphael sees himself in the tradition of Plato: he knows that for good governance, kings must act philosophically. More tries to convince Raphael that he could find a good job in a royal court, advising monarchs, but Raphael says that his views are too radical and would not be listened to. He lays most of the problems of theft on the practice of enclosure-the enclosing of common land-and the subsequent poverty and starvation of people who are denied access to land because of sheep farming. He also criticises the use of execution to punish theft saying that thieves might as well murder whom they rob, to remove witnesses, if the punishment is going to be the same. The first discussions with Raphael allow him to discuss some of the modern ills affecting Europe such as the tendency of kings to start wars and the subsequent bleeding away of money on fruitless endeavours. The first book tells of the traveler Raphael Hythloday, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp, and it also explores the subject of how best to counsel a prince, a popular topic at the time. The letters also explain the lack of widespread travel to Utopia during the first mention of the land, someone had coughed during announcement of the exact longitude and latitude. In the same spirit, these letters also include a specimen of the Utopian alphabet and its poetry. More chose these letters, which are communications between actual people, to further the plausibility of his fictional land. The work begins with written correspondence between Thomas More and several people he had met on the continent: Peter Gilles, town clerk of Antwerp, and Jerome Busleiden, counselor to Charles V.
![utopia synonym utopia synonym](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RpDd2TFQDfM/maxresdefault.jpg)
The lower left-hand corner shows the traveler Raphael Hythlodaeus describing the island. Woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein for a 1518 edition of Utopia. One interpretation holds that this suggests that while Utopia might be some sort of perfected society, it is ultimately unreachable (see below).
![utopia synonym utopia synonym](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y9EmIAt8D1A/maxresdefault.jpg)
This is something that More himself addresses in an addendum to his book Wherfore not Utopie, but rather rightely my name is Eutopie, a place of felicitie. In English, Utopia is pronounced exactly as Eutopia (the latter word, in Greek Εὐτοπία, meaning “good place,” contains the prefix εὐ-, “good”, with which the οὐ of Utopia has come to be confused in English pronunciation). In early modern English, Utopia was spelled "Utopie", which is today rendered Utopy in some editions. "Utopia" is derived from the Greek words ou ( οὐ), "not", and topos ( τόπος), "place", with the suffix -iā ( -ία) that is typical of toponyms hence Outopía ( Οὐτοπία Latinized as Ūtopia, with stress on the second syllable), "no-place-land". This translates, "A truly golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a republic's best state and of the new island Utopia". The original name was even longer: Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia. It is variously rendered On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia, Concerning the Highest State of the Republic and the New Island Utopia, On the Best State of a Commonwealth and on the New Island of Utopia, Concerning the Best Condition of the Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia, On the Best Kind of a Republic and About the New Island of Utopia, About the Best State of a Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia, etc. The Title De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia literally translates, "Of a republic's best state and of the new island Utopia".