The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society
The aim of my paper is to analyse Aldous Huxley’s utopian novel Island (1962) comparing it to the ideas expounded in his essays Science, Liberty and Peace (1946) The Human Situation (1959), The Politics of Ecology-The Question of Survival (1963) and An Encyclopaedia of Pacifism (1972). As we shall s...
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| Formato: | Artículo revista |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
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Centro de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Lenguas (CIFAL), Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Avenida Enrique Barros s/n, Ciudad Universitaria. Córdoba, Argentina. Correo electrónico: revistacylc@lenguas.unc.edu.ar
2020
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| Acceso en línea: | https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31860 |
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I10-R337-article-31860 |
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ojs |
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Universidad Nacional de Córdoba |
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I-10 |
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R-337 |
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Revista de Culturas y Literaturas Comparadas |
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Español |
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Artículo revista |
| topic |
environmental debate mysticism rationalism progress dibattito ecologico misticismo razionalismo progresso |
| spellingShingle |
environmental debate mysticism rationalism progress dibattito ecologico misticismo razionalismo progresso Fortunati, Vita The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society |
| topic_facet |
environmental debate mysticism rationalism progress dibattito ecologico misticismo razionalismo progresso |
| author |
Fortunati, Vita |
| author_facet |
Fortunati, Vita |
| author_sort |
Fortunati, Vita |
| title |
The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society |
| title_short |
The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society |
| title_full |
The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society |
| title_fullStr |
The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society |
| title_sort |
later huxley: beyond brave new world towards an ecological and pacifist society |
| description |
The aim of my paper is to analyse Aldous Huxley’s utopian novel Island (1962) comparing it to the ideas expounded in his essays Science, Liberty and Peace (1946) The Human Situation (1959), The Politics of Ecology-The Question of Survival (1963) and An Encyclopaedia of Pacifism (1972). As we shall see, Huxley, in accordance with the “green movement” of the seventies and eighties (S.F. Schumacher, 1974; H. Daly, 1977; D.W. Pearce, R.K. Turner, 1990) discusses several important issues that are still, today, at the very core of the environmental debate.
Aldous Huxley is an interesting example of an intellectual who managed to unite the two cultures, scientific and humanistic, and who dedicated his life to the search of new perspectives and yet unexplored horizons. His motto “I keep learning” brilliantly exemplifies his lucidly critical attitude towards the reality surrounding him and his observation of nature. His critical thought is, as we shall see, a complex combination of rationality and creativity, of scepticism and mysticism that finds its synthesis in the philosophical principle of being “realistically idealist”.
In this sense the Utopian island of Pala in Island positions itself as the symbol of Huxley’s spiritual and cultural research, because in it he strives to combine and harmonise the results of natural science and cultural technology with eastern thought. In this work he prospects a new model for civilisation in which mysticism and rationalism manage to blend. In Island he criticises progress as the cause of consumerism and the exploitation of nature, and traditional science and medicine as having been slaves of capitalistic society, politics for its cynicism, as well as for having manipulated and conditioned people; he then concludes by hypothesising a society where a perfect balance between the mind and the body, nature and man exists. |
| publisher |
Centro de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Lenguas (CIFAL), Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Avenida Enrique Barros s/n, Ciudad Universitaria. Córdoba, Argentina. Correo electrónico: revistacylc@lenguas.unc.edu.ar |
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2020 |
| url |
https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31860 |
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2024-09-03T21:19:17Z |
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I10-R337-article-318602021-03-16T18:50:22Z The Later Huxley: Beyond Brave New World towards an Ecological and Pacifist Society L’ultimo Huxley: oltre Brave New World verso una società ecologica e pacifista Fortunati, Vita environmental debate mysticism rationalism progress dibattito ecologico misticismo razionalismo progresso The aim of my paper is to analyse Aldous Huxley’s utopian novel Island (1962) comparing it to the ideas expounded in his essays Science, Liberty and Peace (1946) The Human Situation (1959), The Politics of Ecology-The Question of Survival (1963) and An Encyclopaedia of Pacifism (1972). As we shall see, Huxley, in accordance with the “green movement” of the seventies and eighties (S.F. Schumacher, 1974; H. Daly, 1977; D.W. Pearce, R.K. Turner, 1990) discusses several important issues that are still, today, at the very core of the environmental debate. Aldous Huxley is an interesting example of an intellectual who managed to unite the two cultures, scientific and humanistic, and who dedicated his life to the search of new perspectives and yet unexplored horizons. His motto “I keep learning” brilliantly exemplifies his lucidly critical attitude towards the reality surrounding him and his observation of nature. His critical thought is, as we shall see, a complex combination of rationality and creativity, of scepticism and mysticism that finds its synthesis in the philosophical principle of being “realistically idealist”. In this sense the Utopian island of Pala in Island positions itself as the symbol of Huxley’s spiritual and cultural research, because in it he strives to combine and harmonise the results of natural science and cultural technology with eastern thought. In this work he prospects a new model for civilisation in which mysticism and rationalism manage to blend. In Island he criticises progress as the cause of consumerism and the exploitation of nature, and traditional science and medicine as having been slaves of capitalistic society, politics for its cynicism, as well as for having manipulated and conditioned people; he then concludes by hypothesising a society where a perfect balance between the mind and the body, nature and man exists. Lo scopo del mio saggio é di analizzare il romanzo utopico di Aldous Huxley Island (1962) mettendolo a confronto con le idee che lo scrittore espone nei suoi saggi Science, Liberty and Peace (1946), The Human Situation (1959), The Politics of Ecology-The Question of Survival (1963) and An Encyclopaedia of Pacifism (1972). Inoltre si metterà in luce quanto Huxley fosse in sintonia con “il movimento dei verdi” in America negli anni 70 e 80 (S.F. Schumacher, 1974; H. Daly, 1977; D.W. Pearce, R.K. Turner, 1990) su alcune importanti questioni che sono ancora al centro del dibattito ecologico sull’ambiente. Aldous Huxley è un interessante esempio di un intellettuale che si sforzò di unire le due culture, la scientifica e l’umanistica, e che dedicò tutta la vita a ricercare nuove prospettive ed orizzonti ancora inesplorati. Il suo motto “Continuo ad apprendere” esemplifica magnificamente il suo atteggiamento critico e lucido nei confronti della realtà e la sua osservazione della natura. Il suo pensiero critico è una combinazione complessa di razionalità e creatività, di scetticismo e misticismo, che trova la sua sintesi nel principio filosofico di essere “ un idealista realistico”. In questo senso l’isola utopica di Pala in Island esemplifica la ricerca spirituale e culturale di Huxley, perché egli si sforza di unire e armonizzare i risultati della scienza naturale e della cultura tecnologica con il pensiero orientale. In questo romanzo egli prospetta un nuovo modello di civiltà in cui misticismo e razionalismo si mescolano. In Island egli critica il progresso perché è la causa del consumismo e dello sfruttamento della natura, la scienza tradizionale e la medicina poiché sono state asservite alla società capitalista, la politica sia per il suo cinismo che per aver manipolato e condizionato la gente. In sintesi Huxley ipotizza una società in cui vi sia un equilibrio perfetto tra mente e corpo, tra natura e uomo. Centro de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Lenguas (CIFAL), Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Avenida Enrique Barros s/n, Ciudad Universitaria. Córdoba, Argentina. Correo electrónico: revistacylc@lenguas.unc.edu.ar 2020-12-31 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf text/html https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31860 Revista de Culturas y Literaturas Comparadas; Núm. 10 (2020): Distopía y postapocalipsis en la literatura y las artes; 40-53 2591-3883 1852-4737 spa https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31860/32743 https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31860/32744 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 |