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In this section, I’ll compare the British Idealist philosophy to Utopian philosophies and initiatives.
Two well-known Utopian proposals in Britain have been written by Thomas More (Utopia, 1516) and Francis Bacon (The New Atlantis, 1626). In both, a strange place where an ideal society has been constructed is described. This was often to criticize their own society.
Sir Thomas More was a catholic humanist and viewed that as the combination of faith and reason. Among his close friends was Erasmus. In his Utopia, more criticizes orthodox Catholicism, but his ultimate goal is to prove Christian society. (11) More criticized the Anglican church and the king, and therefore was given martyrdom in 1536.
Although More opposed a total lack of private property, in Utopia there is a communal society and much state involvement. It also expresses humanist beliefs.
Both Utilitarians (Bentham, notably) and socialists have found good parts in Utopia, because of its communal society and shared goods and extensive state involvement.
In the Utopian tradition, most philosophers viewed that an ideal society was achieved through social legislation, religious reform or the spreading of knowledge (29). Bacon’s “New Atlantis”, however, was so ideal because of science. In the book, the view is expressed that nature is some sort of tool that humans can use to the betterment of the society. Unlike in Christianity, in this state, a divine sort of morality is, initially, not what to strive for. Although, however, New Atlantis had flaws, it was highly admirable for the intelligence and profound ingenuity of humanity who produced such an abundance of scientific wonders as to alleviate want. (29)
In the nineteenth century, many ideal societies have been attempted to be created, particularly in Britain, France and New England. These were mostly grounded on communal principles and were a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the position of poor people in the cities. None of these communities were successful.
“Utopia” is Greek for “no place”, but sounds like “eutopia” (“good place”). This presents itself both in More’s book (which was to some extent a satire) and in the failure of all of the attempted Utopias in the 1800s. Therefore, you may say that Utopian philosophy is in a way practically idealistic in the negative sense of the word (see section 2.2), because More apparently acknowledged that such an ideal society was virtually impossible and all the attempts at creating these communities have failed.
I found no sources that specifically compare the Utopian Tradition to British Idealism. I think, also, that comparing them is very prone to interpretation, for as far as I know the Idealists didn’t write works that comment on the Utopians.
As you’ll probably have noticed, both the Idealists and the Utopians are actively involved with political and religious philosophy. However, the Idealists did so not only in writing essays on what a society should be like, but also on actively participating in their own society’s politics (university settlement programmes, for example). As far as I’m concerned, there is no British Idealist work in a similar style to the Utopian ones – ie. a traveller lands on a far-away island where an ideal society has been created. British Idealists often used their own society as the object of their philosophies.
However, both the Utopians and the Idealists reacted to historical events in their society. As I said, More reacted to the reformation. He did not support that, while many Idealists did. However, his Catholic Humanism is also an attempt to unite reason and faith.
Even though my research about the direct influence of the Utopians on the British Idealists remained largely inconclusive, it must be noted here that the Utopians also influenced the Empiricists - in fact, you may even consider Bacon to be one -, who had a notable influence on the Idealists. However, the alleged connections are very prone to interpretation.
First, it must be clear that Bacon himself had some inconsistent ideas, suiting his presuppositions for the time, audience and purpose. However, he saw a clear distinction between natural sciences and divinity. The "level of nature" is said by Christians to be the level of knowledge a pagan, who has not experienced the revelations of God, has. The "level of grace", then, becomes the spiritual knowledge people who have had revelations from God experience. Bacon wanted to separate those two things entirely, which in my interpretation is quite opposite to what the Idealists did, in their uniting matter in the mind. Empiricism as you will see in section 3.3, overall raises these epistemological problems that cause Idealists to disagree with it