Sir Thomas More

(1478 - 1535)

Timothy H. Wilson

Portrait of Thomas More (1527)Hans Holbein the YoungerThe Frick Collection, New York

Sir Thomas More was a political philosopher of the highest order, as evidenced by his great work, Utopia. He was a political historian as evidenced in his History of King Richard III. He was a theologian who confronted the most problematic and controversial issues in his day in a series of religious polemics against Protestant theologians. In these, More defended the Catholic faith and the authority of the traditions established in its practices as the only sure path to God. More was a poet, composing verses in both Latin and his vernacular English. Finally, More was a man engaged in the world of political affairs at the highest levels, including as Chancellor and Member of Parliament. Given More's important responsibilities in the political realm, it is no small miracle that he was able to be as productive as he was as a philosopher, historian, theologian and poet. Part of the secret may have been his austere schedule. It is reported that he would wake at 2am in order to study and pray before his daily duties began. In his Letter to Peter Giles, which he chose as prefatory material for his Utopia, More says that the only time his has for his studying is what he is able to "steal from sleeping and eating". We could all use More as an inspirational example of the need to balance worldly engagement with reflection and spiritual communion with the Divine. More also offers us an example of the man devoted to public service, while holding his service to truth and to God as higher callings still. He was convicted of treason and executed after refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. At his execution, he is reported to have said: "I die the King's good servant, and God's first".

More's Utopia is included on my list of 101 Greatest Books of the Western Canon.

Course Materials

Thomas More's Utopia: An Introduction

A detailed introduction to More's classic work. The problems of interpreting More's overall intention are explored in relation to: the overall structure, including the "Parerga"; the ironic quality of More's work as a satire; and the ironies posed by Book I's "Dialogue on Counsel". The point is made that the key to understanding the work as a whole is to see it as a reversal of Plato's Republic.

Reflections on the Great Books

On Sir Thomas More's Utopia

Detailed notes on More's classic work. The problems of interpreting More's overall intention are explored in relation to: the overall structure, including the "Parerga"; the ironic quality of More's work as a satire; and the ironies posed by Book I's "Dialogue on Counsel".

Publications on More

Thomas More's Utopia: A Reversal of Plato's Republic

An essay focusing on More's classic work in relation to Plato's Republic. It is asserted that More reverses the basic structure of Plato's work. The Republic ascends through the construction in speech to the just city and then descends through unjust cities; More's work begins with a descent into unjust regimes in the first half and ascends to the just regime in the second. More seems to highlight certain problematic features of Plato's work in this reversal: including the nature of philosophic rule, the need for the rule of religion and tradition in the just society, and the role of poetic figuring forth in the pursuit of truth.

The Aesthetics of the Good Physician: Plato's Philosopher-Ruler, More's Hythloday and Spenser's Immeritô

In Self-Consuming Artifacts, Stanley Fish outlines what he calls “The Aesthetics of the Good Physician.” Within the Western tradition, according to Fish, the dialectician as physician leads the auditor to a place where he or she can abandon the realm of rhetoric and images. The texts of Plato, More, and Spenser, however, present another possibility for the relation between dialectic and rhetoric: a relation which confirms the necessity of each element within the unity of the whole.

External Links

Thomas More entry at Wikipedia

Thomas More entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Sir Thomas More at Luminarium

Thomas More at The Catholic Encyclopedia

The Center for Thomas More Studies at the University of Dallas

More's Utopia at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

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