The issue of the ideal society in European culture: utopia against the background of epistemic re/evolution

The article examines the issue of building a “perfect society” in the sense of utopia. Its first description in 360–370 BC was developed by the ancient philosopher Plato. In the XVI century, a distinctive form of human thinking regarding the concept of the “perfect society” was called “utopia” after the name of an island in the work of Thomas More. Over time, historical shifts (transformations) in society diversified the issues of works of this genre, but the goal remained unchanged — to create a model/project of a “perfect society”. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, works in the utopia genre were popular among various strata of society — not only the general public, but also philosophers, scientists, and thinkers. In the late XVIII and early XIX centuries, social engineering in the form of works of fiction acquired the features of politicization (Saint-Simon, S. Fourier, etc.). The construction of an ideal “communist society, which began in 1917 in Russia and later in some other countries, cost the world tens of millions of human lives and continues to this day. Problem statement. In the XXI century, planning, design, and forecasting have become widespread tools in all areas of human activity due to the development of digital tools. They make it possible to use available resources more efficiently and develop prospects for further social development. At the same time, the discussion of the future development of humanity has emerged as a trend called “technological utopia”. Understanding the features of techno-utopianism in the context of the “perfect society” of classical utopia will make it possible to assess the chances of its existence and the probability of building a “perfect society” in this project. Using the historical method of research, the author proves that the concept of an “ideal society” is exclusively theoretical; it a priori cannot exist in the material world. The relevance of the topic is seen in the growing societal interest in a new kind of genre — “technological utopia”. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that for the first time, “technological utopia” as a social project is examined through the lens of the historical discourse of the “perfect society”. The author concludes: the understanding of the concept of utopia in ancient philosophy contained an existential error, since it is impossible to create an ideal whole from imperfect components. After all, according to Plato, the idea of anything exists in itself, independently and in opposition to the material world. All these ideas (“eidos”) make up what does not exist — in particular, each individual’s idea of how the external world works. Each person has his or her own idea of an “ideal society”, and the totality of such ideas, due to the different experiences of each person, can never be materialized. Techno-utopianism, or technological utopia as we know it in the first quarter of the XXI century, has a conditional (inexact) definition. Specific proposals, developments, predictions based on reproducible experiments and rigorous logical reasoning do not contradict the actual laws of nature. Their purpose is to change the real world, whereas the main feature of utopia is the description of a world that does not exist “here and now”.