Aldous Huxley

Literary Style

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Huxley is truly a philosopher, though in a limited sense

• Not a Founder: It's mentioned that Huxley isn't a philosopher in the sense of
creating a whole new philosophical system. He didn't invent a new way of
thinking like some famous philosophers did.
• Not "Philosophical Pretensions": The passage criticizes the idea that Huxley's
philosophical views should be seen as false or pretentious. In other words, it's
unfair to say he claimed to have philosophical ideas that he didn't really have.
• Skeptical and Curious: Huxley had a skeptical and curious mind. When he was
young, he questioned old ideas, and as he got older, he searched for new and
enduring truths (that are the mixture of old and new truth.

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General Characteristics

• Huxley writes in a clear, powerful, and elegant manner.

• He wrote novels, essays, and travel writings. Huxley possessed what we can
describe as "encyclopedic knowledge”. This means he had deep knowledge in a
wide array of subjects, including philosophy, biology, sociology, economics,
religion, anthropology, politics, literature (both ancient and modern), eugenics,
painting, music, sculpture, architecture, and metaphysics. And this list doesn't
even cover everything he knew about. What's truly remarkable is that Huxley
wrote about all these subjects with great confidence and competence.
• In his lifetime, he was regarded as a Prophet. He was a humanist and he predicted
the population explosion.

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His Philosophical View

• In Jesting Pilate (1926) Huxley wrote that religion might be a device employed
by the Life Force for the promotion of its evolutionary designs but that religion
was also a device employed by the Devil for the spread of idiocy.
• In an essay in Do What You Will (1929) he developed the theory that God is
simply a projection of the human personality. Men make gods in their own
likenesses, and we should speak about religion only in terms of human
psychology.
• Huxley ridiculed the anthropomorphic conception of God. Huxley at this stage
in his life believed in the sanctity of the human personality rather than in the myth
of God.

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Conversion to Mysticism

• Evolution of Views: Huxley's thinking changed over time. In "Eyeless in Gaza," he fully
embraced mysticism, which is about seeking a deep connection with God or a spiritual
understanding. He believed that unity and love were good, while evil came from hatred,
greed, and lust, which divided people.
• The Perennial Philosophy: Huxley's book "The Perennial Philosophy" expressed his
strong faith in mysticism. He said that the purpose of human life was to have a direct and
intuitive knowledge of God through contemplation. He believed that a society focused on
spiritual pursuits, rather than just technological advances, could prevent war and violence.
• He believed that the mystical experience was a real and verifiable phenomenon.
• Desire for Fusion: In his last novel, "Island," Huxley envisioned a utopia where the
mystical wisdom of the East merged with the technological advancements of the West.
However, he was disappointed that both East and West borrowed each other's negative
qualities instead of the positive ones.
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Conversion to Mysticism

• Critique of Popular Art: Huxley also criticized popular art. He believed that the
demand for easily accessible art had led to a lot of bad artists producing inferior
art. This art was seen as inferior because it either stated obvious truths too
realistically or presented great truths poorly.
• Sensitive Artists' Reaction: Some sensitive artists reacted to this by avoiding
even the smallest details of human nature in their work. They stopped portraying
the obvious beauties and marvels of life. Instead, they focused on formal elements
in visual arts, emphasized physical energy and speed in music, and ignored
significant truths in literature.
• Reversed Romanticism: This approach in the arts is called "reversed
romanticism," where artists avoid the obvious. Huxley encouraged younger artists
to confront this tendency and challenge it in their work.
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The Meaning of “Eclecticism”

• In the past, "eclectics" were philosophers who didn't follow one particular system of
thought but picked what they believed was true from various philosophies. They tried to
combine the ideas of different philosophers into a coherent whole.
• Today, the term "eclecticism" is used not just in philosophy but also in art and other
areas. It means that when someone deals with different aspects of modern life, like
politics, economics, science, and more, they might take ideas from various sources. This
makes them an eclectic thinker.
• Aldous Huxley was an eclectic thinker too because he explored and used ideas from
various areas of life. However, it's not fair to call his eclectic thinking "adolescent
posturing," which means pretending to be something you're not.
• Some critics accused him of pretending to be a philosopher and compared his diverse
thinking to something immature like “adolescent posturing” which means to try to
appear more important than you are.
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Several Collection of his Essays

• Huxley wrote numerous essays on a wide range of topics, and these essays have been gathered into
several collections. Just looking at the titles of these essays shows how diverse his interests were:
• In the early collection "On The Margin," you can find essays about Chaucer, Ben Jonson, and Edward
Lear, as well as pieces on various subjects like "Advertisement," "Accidie," "Sir Christopher Wren," and
"Tibet.“
• The collection "Do What You Will" includes essays such as "The One And The Many," "Spinoza's
Worm," "Revolutions," "Wordsworth In the Tropics," "Holy Face," along with in-depth studies of authors
like Swift, Baudelaire, and Pascal.
• In the volume "The Olive Tree," you'll discover essays like "In A Tamsian Oasis," "Crebillon the
Younger," "Justifications," the title essay "The Olive Tree," "Readers and Writers," "Words and
Behaviour," as well as introductions to Autobiography and D. H. Lawrence's Letters.
• There are also collections titled "Themes and Variations" and "Adonis and the Alphabet," both featuring
essays on a wide array of subjects.
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Essay and their themes

• Brave New World pictures a time when man would become an automaton under a wholly
authoritarian regime. The purpose of the book was to give us a full picture of society
manufactured and controlled scientifically.
• Ape and Essence describes the horrible consequences of a nuclear World War.
• Island portrays an ideal world in which the conflicting forces of science, religion, and sex are
reconciled and man is able to live a peaceful and harmonious life.
• In the book "Music at Night," Huxley explores the fact that nature doesn't make everything
equal, and sometimes our attempts to do so are unwise.
• The book is divided into four sections:
• The first section discusses aesthetics,
• The second section is philosophical
• The third section focuses on the topic of sex
• The fourth section deals with social issues
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Essay and their themes

• Tragedy and the Whole Truth": Huxley explains that in a tragedy, the writer carefully selects and presents
their material, creating a chemically pure emotional impact that's intense but brief. On the other hand, telling
the "Whole Truth" in literature doesn't shy away from anything, offering a broader perspective with a less
intense but longer-lasting effect.
• "Art and the Obvious": Huxley criticizes popular literature of his time for avoiding important truths about
human life and nature. He encourages sensitive artists not to avoid these truths but to engage with them in
their work.
• "And Wanton Optics Roll the Melting Eye": Huxley discusses the failure of blending science and poetry,
offering brief analyses of Dante's Divine Comedy and Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.
• In his essay "Ends and Means," written in 1937, Huxley argued against the common belief that "the end
justifies the means," which means doing whatever it takes to achieve a goal. He believed that this approach
was wrong, both in politics and in individual life.
• In Huxley's essay titled "To the Parian all Things are Impure," he passionately defends D.H. Lawrence's
frank approach to discussing sex. He also uses satire to criticize what he calls "Grundyism”.
• He also criticizes what he refers to as "Fordism," which is a philosophy related to industrialism.
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