4 ideas
Campanella wrote The City of the Sun in 1602 in a Naples prison. He had been jailed after the failed 1599 Calabrian conspiracy against Spanish rule, and he feigned madness under torture to avoid execution. He stayed imprisoned for about 27 years, and his most complete vision of perfect order came from a man held captive by the actual state. The book is a case of a political program defeated in action being turned into a written model society.
The Solarian city's seven concentric walls are painted inside and out with all knowledge: mathematics, minerals, plants, animals, the mechanical arts and famous lawgivers. Children learn by walking the city with teachers, so education comes from moving through the built environment rather than from books alone. Architecture becomes the curriculum, and everyone who lives in the city is constantly exposed to organized knowledge.
The Solarians argue that self-love comes from owning a separate house, wife and children. Each person then grabs wealth or status to pass on to heirs, which corrupts the common good. Abolishing private property and the private household removes the motive, so love of self is redirected into love of the community.
In the City of the Sun, officials treat reproduction as a public function rather than a private choice. They pair partners by physical and temperamental complementarity, such as strong with weak and stout with thin, to balance offspring. They set the moment of conception by astrological conjunctions to optimize the child's nature. The logic is the same as with livestock: the state that cares for the breeding of dogs and horses should care even more for the breeding of citizens.