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Abstract
The aim of this article is to outline how Hans Blumenberg's conception of lifetime and world time (Lebenszeit und Weltzeit, 1986) can help to elucidate a substantial problem of utopian literature and its development from the 16th to the 18th century: utopias always try to illustrate the ways by which the single members of a political community harmonise with the community as a whole. The congruence of private good and common good, private interest and common interest, private will and general will is a main task of 17th and 18th century political philosophy. Blumenberg's book, however, allows us to focus on the existential dimension of this harmonisation: under which circumstances may the single members become so wise and virtuous within their lifetimes that they always know about and comply with the common good? 18th century utopias seem to find answers to this question in theories of moral sense, common sense and aesthetic education.