Utopia, altrimenti speranza: tensionalità tra presente e possibile = Utopia, or else hope: the tension between the present and the possible

Abstract

Where does utopia preserve its potential openness? Can we still speak of utopia in an age of disenchantment? The aim of this paper is to situate utopia within the dynamic tension between the present and the possible through a reinterpretation of reality based on four categories: imagination, utopia, hope, and symbol – understood not as separate domains, but as dynamic and intertwined moments within an anthropological vision in which the subject exceeds what is given. Imagination is presented as an original faculty capable of restructuring reality and anticipating possible scenarios. Utopia is defined as the historical-political configuration of the possible worlds generated by imagination, capable of adopting a critical stance toward the present and orienting it toward alternatives. Hope is seen as the existential energy that sustains openness to the future even in uncertainty, while the symbol is reinterpreted as a shared language that makes the tension between the present and the possible communicable and operative.

In the second part, the focus shifts to the relationship between these four categories and temporality, highlighting the role of the present as the temporal locus in which the possible is decided and enacted. Within this framework, symbol and hope emerge as decisive elements for translating possibilities into action. From an anthropological perspective, the human being is interpreted as exceeding what is given, structurally incomplete and therefore open to transformation. However, such openness also entails risks: imagination may degenerate into escapism, utopia into ideology, hope into illusion, and symbol into an instrument of manipulation.

The paper therefore proposes a critical conception of the possible, understood not as an escape from reality but as its internal transformation. In this perspective, the four concepts function as vectors for a philosophy of the possible capable of keeping open the horizon of the not-yet without collapsing into either cynicism or ideological naivety.