Utopia as Adverb. On the Episthemic Conditions of Utopian Thought

Abstract

Why is utopian thinking so difficult today? This essay argues that this difficulty is rooted in a structural shift in the practice of knowledge. Under the current dominance of model-based thinking, an attitude has taken hold that I call the “as if not”: while we continue to be guided by myths and imaginative worlds, we treat them as cognitively insignificant fictions. Utopian thinking depends on the vital interplay between two irreducible epistemic forms: the model, which simplifies complexity for manageability, and the myth, which keeps contradictions open to make them bearable. What is being eroded is what Musil called the Möglichkeitssinn, the capacity to hold the actual and the possible in productive tension. When this interplay breaks down, utopia either solidifies into a rigid blueprint (a model without myth) or dissolves into nostalgic compensation (myth without a model). To restore the utopian impulse, this essay proposes reconceptualizing utopia adverbially, as a mode of orientation rather than a telos. This shift is enacted through metamythologization, which describes a reflexive practice of naming the imaginary worlds embedded in our models and maintaining their productive tension. The 1.5°C climate threshold illustrates this dynamic as a modeling target that simultaneously functions as a mythical condensation of intractable political tensions.