Ideal Commonwealths, Plutarch's Lycurgus, More's Utopia, Bacon's New Atlantis, Campanella's City of the Sun, Hall's Mundus Alter Et Idem - Softcover

Reseña del editor

Ideal Commonwealths is comprised of five writings on the ideal civilization including politics and social programs. Inspired by the philosophy of Plato and Socrates and often viewed as satirical, each essay each essay portrays an ideal form of human existence. Life of Lycurgus by Plutarch is a biography of Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society. All his reforms were directed towards the three Spartan virtues: equality, military fitness, and austerity. Utopia by the Tudor statesman and Catholic martyr, Sir Thomas More describes a communist society austerely dedicated to organized happiness. The New Atlantis by James I's Lord Chancellor, Sir Francis Bacon, describes a South Pacific community committed to scientific research; doing pioneering work in aeronautical and submarine technology and in genetic engineering. The City of the Sun by Tomaso Campanella, is located on an island in the Indian Ocean. This is one of the most important utopias, and may have influenced Bacon's New Atlantis. Mundus Alter et Idem by Joseph Hall is a satirical utopian fantasy in which the narrator takes a voyage in the ship Fantasia, in the southern seas.

Biografía del autor

About the Introducer
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON has written extensively on both ancient Greek and military history; his ?fteen books include The Western Way of War and Between War and Peace. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a professor of classics at California State University, Fresno.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.

Francis Bacon was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1909. He emerged as one of the leading painters of the 20th century during the 40s and 50s. Bacon expanded the possibilities of figurative art with a bold, expressionistic style at a time when abstraction was the dominant mode. He was also one of the first artists to depict overtly homosexual themes. He stands as a towering figure in 20th-century art, having established a huge influence on younger generations of painters. He died in 1992.