Comparative Study of Utopian and Educational Thoughts Between Plato’s Republic and C. P. Gilman’s Herland
Author: Yung-Chuan Fang(Department of Education, National Taiwan Normal University)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 58, No. 1
Date：March 2013
Pages：1-27
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2013035801001
Abstract：
For this article, we mainly compare and analyze two important writings regarding “utopian” educational proposals: Plato’s Republic and C. P. Gilman’s feminist utopian novel Herland. They both are utopian and educational classics, and their ideal societies are both communist societies, but the basic organizing principles and educational proposals vary in numerous ways.
After reviewing the above-mentioned two utopian writings and other related studies, we summarize the study’s conclusion: (1) The utopian spirit of modern society should be utopianism consistent with the “iconoclastic utopian tradition”; (2) we require placing more attention on an evolutionary “dynamic utopia” than a theoretically “static utopia”; and (3) the female images that Plato and Gilman attempted to cultivate are similar, but their emphases on “motherhood” are of different degrees. Plato did not consider motherhood, but Gilman honored it as the most important social value, and we argue that such a difference is significant for people to reconsider the meaning of education.
Keywords：motherhood, Herland, utopia, educational thought, Republic
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