Marxisms as Utopias: Evolving Ideologies

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Abstract
There have been three different successive usages of the concept of utopia, reflecting different moments in the history of the modern world-system. The three quintessential texts are by Thomas More, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Mannheim. They are, respectively, utopia as the criticism of capitalist reality in the name of egalitarian ideas, as the culminating idea of the bourgeoisie's "kingdom of reason," and as a state of mind that can "transcend reality...[and] break the bonds of the existing order." There have been three successive eras of Marxian thought: the era of Marx himself, 1840s-1883; the era of "orthodox" Marxism, from ca. 1880 to ca. 1950; and the era of a thousand Marxisms, 1950s, on. Each Marxian era is correlated with one of the three attitudes toward utopia. Parallel to the three eras of Marxian thought are three eras of social science: the philosophic era, the scientific era, and a new and as yet unnamed era. The implications of being in the third era of utopias, of Marxisms, and of the social sciences are explored.

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