More incorporates a strong element of Epicureanism into Utopia—the philosophical doctrine that pleasure is the only good—but only within bounds of natural reason and revealed religion, allowing simple, natural pleasures unmixed with sin.

In Utopia, death penalty is reserved only for those who have repeatedly offended and cannot be reformed, but instead the standard punishment is enslavement with the possibility of rehabilitation, redemption, and reintegration into society—a groping toward the idea of rehabilitation rooted in Christian forgiveness.

More borrows the just war doctrine from Aquinas, holding that wars of aggression are unjust but wars of defense are just, and the utopians go to war only under three circumstances: defense against invasion, defense of friendly nations, and deliverance of weak states from tyranny.

In Utopia there is no noble lie—unlike Plato's Republic where rulers must lie to the ruled to maintain order—because all human beings are equal in the sight of God, and human equality is inextricably bound up with the history of Christianity.

More talks of sheep eating men—referring to the enclosure movement in English economics and politics which drove people off the land, allowing large-scale commerce but killing displaced people who could no longer feed themselves and died terrible deaths in cities.

Thomas More was a scholar, practical politician, and martyr who was killed by Henry VIII over political and religious disputes.

Thomas More, like his friend Erasmus, was remarkable for his tolerance and conservatism—not conservatism regarding particular political issues, but religious conservatism rooted in reluctance to change and his belief as a Catholic during the Reformation.

More borrows from Aristotle the concept of virtue as a mean between two vices, which More integrates with his understanding of sin, arguing that extremes of human conduct cause trouble.

In Utopian society, hedonism and pleasure are advocated within the bounds of Scripture and reason; additionally, certain people engage in public service through asceticism—some eat meat and marry while doing difficult public service, others remain chaste and eat only vegetables, thought to be holier but not wiser.

More's advocacy for abolishing commerce was considered utopian in the pejorative sense during the Renaissance because the new world had been discovered, scientific and religious changes were underway, and the nation-state era was established—making the elimination of commerce seem impossible.

In More's Utopian society, atheists are not persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, or punished with death, but are prohibited from holding public office and giving testimony because they cannot swear by God, representing a violation of the Aristotelian mean of religious zeal.

The concept of sin is absent from Platonic and Aristotelian moral discourse, and this leads to characteristic errors in classical philosophy—particularly Plato's assumption that with the Form of the Good and philosopher-kings in place, evil will be eliminated.

More retreats from Christian asceticism by arguing that asceticism would make no sense if it did not serve a divine purpose, and no divine purpose is served by abolishing the simple and natural pleasures God has offered to human beings.

More is more realistic than Plato about human nature: he does not believe humans are perfectable, and this belief in human imperfectibility is another formulation of the doctrine of original sin.

In Utopia, politics is organized hierarchically mirroring natural social hierarchy, with the family (30 people including multiple generations) as the minimal unit, the eldest male (paterfamilias) representing the whole family, groups of 30 families electing a phylak (magistrate), phylaks electing a tranibor, and the prince elected by phyloks.

Utopia is one of the great works in the western tradition of political thought that describes an ideal society from the perspective of a believing Christian during the Renaissance.

More borrows the Aristotelian idea of the family as the minimal unit of society (against Plato's abolition of the family), which is more consistent with Scripture and Christian tradition.

In understanding More's intellectual genealogy, scholars should consult Plato's Laws as well as the Republic, because Plato changed his political thinking considerably from the Republic to the Laws, and More lifts concessions to human imperfection wholesale from Plato's Laws.

More, though essentially just and generous, recognized as a practicing judge that his society's laws (such as capital punishment for theft) might be unjust, and concluded that society itself bears blame for the practical evils in its legal system, not just the individual transgressors.

Thomas More conceived of an ideal society as a static one that is immune to change and to history.