"Utopian thought is as ancient as the sufferings of humanity. That is why all utopian writers have addressed, through their works, the socio-political crises of all pre-capitalist societies, where human masses were blindly struggling to carve their way, as a necessity of history.
Thus, utopian designs were born to overcome the unacknowledged social contradictions with the imaginary 'ideal states,' to provide answers to pressing questions and to hopes for a fairer life. But what is the significance and what is the goal of the historical perspective of the utopia of Plato's 'Ideal State,' which emerges as a fantastical transcendence of historical reality? And more generally, what is the historical dimension of utopia as a social ideological system?
What is its reference to the historical past and the historical future with the hope for a better life? This study attempts to answer these questions based on an analysis of the category of utopia, as it emerges from the historical reality of pre-capitalist societies and specifically the social philosophy of Plato in slave-owning antiquity and T. More in the feudal Middle Ages." (From the foreword by the author A. L. Antonakopoulos)
