The concept of utopia

This really made me think about utopias more than any other book I’ve read so far. I still maintain, with Kumar, a separation between utopia (present, future) and golden ages (past) as a result of utopia being speculative and possible, while the past is necessarily beyond change, which Levitas doesn’t follow. But she’s in good company—Kumar alone seems to hold this distinction.

This is the praise I give Levitas: she made me think harder than many, many other theorists. Her form/function/substance delineation in defining “utopia” is sharp, and her analytic method is even sharper.