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Sir Thomas More ranks in the upper echelon of heroes of the humanist movement. His greatest work, Utopia, focused on people’s curiosity concerning the New World. The premise of Utopia is a conversation that More had with Raphael Hythlodaeus, a sailor who traveled with Amerigo Vespucci to discover a new land named Utopia. More utilizes the pun of the word Utopia, meaning both “good place” and “no place.” More both criticizes his own government …

…conflicts that split nations. In writing Utopia, More did not write a manual for the ideal society. Even he himself realized that Utopia would not logically work in real life. However, he is to be remembered for his ideas about the need for human equality, religious tolerance, and his certainty that life should be lived for the happiness of each human being. These Renaissance ideas foretell the thoughts of many great philosophers of the future.