Utopia as a method of embodying hope for the future in the present: Huxley’s ideal society in Island

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/2704-8195/11194

Keywords:

perfect society, utopia, future, prefiguration, Huxley

Abstract

Utopian studies have traditionally focused on the idea of the perfect society, proposing or criticising it. Now a new perspective is emerging that sees utopia as a method for thinking about alternatives to the present and prefiguring possible futures. In this sense, it actively contributes to the ethical-political debate by proposing and evaluating principles and practices to improve individual and collective life. In this essay, I have explored this perspective by focusing my analysis on Island, a utopian novel in which Aldous Huxley pragmatically explores the potential of utopia as an analytical tool for critically examining the present, embodying a desirable and feasible alternative and proposing its contribution to utopian thought. Huxley’s contribution can be summarised as a call to consider the future as open and feasible and to adopt a pragmatic attitude that allows alternatives to be thought and practised every day, since the future is created and recreated in every moment.

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Author Biography

Vanessa Regazzi, Università di Cagliari

Vanessa Regazzi obtained her master’s degree in Philosophical Sciences at the University of Bologna with a thesis on complexity, entitled “Outlines of a Theory and Practice of Complexity. From the Irreducibility of Reality to an Ecological Ethics, for an Integrated Worldview”. She is currently a PhD student in Research and Social Innovation at the University of Cagliari. Her research focuses on the evolution of the concept of dwelling in the last century and on new forms of living, with particular attention to collaborative housing models such as cohousing and housing occupations. She is interested in understanding how collaborative practises can contribute to sustainable and inclusive innovations in urban communities, and in exploring the permeable boundaries between the formal and informal dimensions of housing, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. Her main research areas are urban and housing studies, social and spatial justice, and social innovation.

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Published

2024-11-01

How to Cite

Regazzi, V. (2024). Utopia as a method of embodying hope for the future in the present: Huxley’s ideal society in Island. Filosofia, (69). https://doi.org/10.13135/2704-8195/11194

Issue

No. 69 (2024): sci-phi

Section

Essays

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Copyright (c) 2024 Vanessa Regazzi

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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