Investigating the Role of "Machine" on Changing the Meaning of "Place" in Modern Utopias

The utopias play a major role in shaping the mental images of the players and building the future of mankind. thinking about a good future, indeed, has a history as old as human history. However, after Thomas More, the modern era of utopian literature began with its own characteristics. One of the m...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Seyed Sajjad Shariati, Mohammadreza ArabBafrani
Format: Article
Language:fas
Published: Allameh Tabataba'i University Press 2019-12-01
Series:حکمت و فلسفه
Subjects:
Online Access:https://wph.atu.ac.ir/article_12003_bd1e93acb553c8c43434fc4dd0d27f23.pdf
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Summary:The utopias play a major role in shaping the mental images of the players and building the future of mankind. thinking about a good future, indeed, has a history as old as human history. However, after Thomas More, the modern era of utopian literature began with its own characteristics. One of the most important transitions in utopian literature since More has been the transition in the meaning of "Place" and, moreover, "Time", which, according to this article, has happened under the influence of the concept of the machine. In fact, it seems that the machine has largely disarranged Utopia's inner body and changed the foundations of its fundamental concepts. This article seeks to answer the question of what is the role of the machine in changing the concept of place in post-Morian utopias? In order to answer this question and based on Hobbes's understanding of the machine, historical periods of the post-Morion utopias were studied, and then the role of the machine in each period has been discussed. This historical trajectory shows that “No-where” (U-Topia), in the historical movement of Post-Morion utopias, first becomes to “No-when” (non-time) and then to “without-where (Placeless) and without-when (Timeless)” or, in another word, Cyber Utopias. As a result, Utopia, which at first was a "distant-city" or "future-society" becomes a machine that itself does not have time and space but becomes, in itself, the time and place of the ideal or anti-Ideal society.
ISSN:1735-3238
2476-6038