Publisher's Synopsis
From its beginnings with Thomas More, the classical Utopian tradition laid claim to the status of a regulatory principle or ideal. In the 18th century this changed radically. This volume is designed to trace the way in which the Enlightenment brought the problem of how to actually change existing conditions into the discussion on Utopianism, thus generating forms of legitimization for social praxis anticipating developments in the 19th century. The articles were originally papers held at a symposium on "The Politicization of Utopianism in the 18th Century" organized at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research into the European Enlightenment in Halle in early 1995.
