Utopia as a method of embodying hope for the future in the present: Huxley’s ideal society in Island

Utopian studies have traditionally focused on the idea of the perfect society, proposing or criticising it. Now a new perspective is emerging that sees utopia as a method for thinking about alternatives to the present and prefiguring possible futures. In this sense, it actively contributes to the ethical-political debate by proposing and evaluating principles and practices to improve individual and collective life. In this essay, I have explored this perspective by focusing my analysis on Island, a utopian novel in which Aldous Huxley pragmatically explores the potential of utopia as an analytical tool for critically examining the present, embodying a desirable and feasible alternative and proposing its contribution to utopian thought. Huxley’s contribution can be summarised as a call to consider the future as open and feasible and to adopt a pragmatic attitude that allows alternatives to be thought and practised every day, since the future is created and recreated in every moment.