Between Utopia and Dystopia

The figure of the intellectual looms large in modern history, and yet his or her social place has always been full of ambiguity and ironies. Between Utopia and Dystopia is a study of the movement that created the identity of the universal intellectual: Erasmian humanism. Focusing on the writings of Erasmus and Thomas More, Hanan Yoran argues that, in contrast to other groups of humanists, Erasmus and the circle gathered around him generated the social space—the Erasmian Republic of Letters—that allowed them a considerable measure of independence. The identity of the autonomous intellectual enabled the Erasmian humanists to criticize established customs and institutions and to elaborate a reform program for Christendom. At the same time, however, the very notion of the universal intellectual presented a problem for the discourse of Erasmian humanism itself. It distanced the Erasmian humanists from concrete public activity and, as such, clashed with their commitment to the ideal of an active life. Furthermore, citizenship in the Republic of Letters threatened to lock the Erasmian humanists into a disembodied intellectual sphere, thus undermining their convictions concerning intellectual activity and the production of knowledge. Between Utopia and Dystopia will be of interest to scholars and students interested in Renaissance humanism, early modern intellectual and cultural history, and political thought. It also has much to contribute to debates over the identity, social place, and historical role of intellectuals.

Elegantly written, passionate, and informed by a wide learning in Renaissance studies, HananYoran's book explores the origins of the modern figure of the 'intellectual' in the philosophical theories and life-stories of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More. He shows how these two Christian humanists turned the critical methodologies of their predecessors, the Italian humanists, into a new and much more radical ideology of modern humanity, based on some classical and early Christian conceptions of civic morality. Inasmuch as they dared to challenge the ecclesiastical and political authorities of their time and to create an independent Republic of Letters, they set a compelling example of intellectual nonconformity that is still relevant today., This study should prompt readers to think carefully about the early sixteenth-century humanist movement from a fresh perspective., Recommended., Readers who resist Yoran’s characterization of the autonomous universal intellectual for being tendentious will miss some of the more provocative insights this approach yields....Yoran’s bold and insightful investigation solves old problems and raises new questions, and specialists in Northern humanism generally, as well as interpreters of the two focal figures [Erasmus and More], will be instructed and stimulated by this comparative study., Indeed, the whole book is redolent of deep immersion in its subject, and of a passionate desire to make Milton's masque speak to contemporary society.

Hanan Yoran is lecturer in the department of history at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.