Peace and war in Thomas More’s «Utopia»: just war and pacifist thought in the XVIth century

Abstract

Through an historical-conceptual analysis of Utopia, the essay examines several features of More’s international political thought, drawing attention to the analogies that permit to compare his work to contemporary theories and practices of justifying war. From this perspective, More’s conceptualisation of just war constitutes an early modern attempt to legitimise states’ policies aimed at exporting specific political and cultural models to other states, relying on the assumption that such models are intrinsically valuable or constitute optimal solutions for the life of any political community.