Rehabilitating utopia: Feminist science fiction and finding the ideal

Abstract

Twentieth century political philosophy takes for granted that the pursuit of utopia is dangerous for three reasons: pursuing utopia justifies the use of violence to accomplish its ends; it requires one to deny the individual in favor of the community; and it utilizes a mindset of mere problem‐solving when asking the question of how humans should live together fruitfully. But these criticisms (articulated by Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls and Michael Oakeshott, respectively) do not apply to certain writers of feminist science fiction whose utopias embrace pluralism, ambiguity, and the messiness of politics. This paper examines the work of two such utopians, Octavia Butler and Marge Piercy, in order to reinvigorate political philosophy with the visions of community imagined in these largely ignored utopias.