Abstract
Aldous Huxley’s science-fictive dystopian novel Brave New World presents us with two different world-views based on different forms of life. One of them is New World’s behaviorist way of living, which suppresses feelings, emotions and sensitivities by means of conditioning, because “everyone belongs to everyone else” in a hierarchically organized society. The other, is the imprisonment of savages in the Reservation, which is a “primitive” way of living according to the description of the New World’s inhabitants. Although minor world-view clashes between the members of the New World occur, the major clash is between the Old World’s John the Savage and the New World’s inhabitants, which ends with a tragic event. Is this unavoidable?
In this article, I discuss whether it is possible for us to convince someone of a different world-view on merely rational grounds within the context of Brave New World. First, I concentrate on the New World and the conflict John the Savage lives within it. Secondly, I appeal to the views of political thinkers to understand whether rational means are enough to overcome our differences in a discussion over different forms of life. Thirdly, I discuss whether it is possible to solve the conflict by locating John the Savage in Huxley’s Island.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Habermas, J. (1970). Toward a rational society (J. J. Shapiro, Trans.). Boston: Polity Press.
Huxley, A. (1932/2007). Brave new world. London: Vintage Books.
Huxley, A. (1941). Ends and means. London: Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1946/1947). The perennial philosophy. London: Oxford University Press.
Huxley, A. (1958/2004). Brave new world revisited. London: Vintage Books.
Huxley, A. (1962/2005). Island. London: Random House.
MacDonald, A. (2001). Choosing utopia: An existential reading of Aldous Huxley’s Island. Utopian Studies, 12(2), 103–113.
Mouffe, C. (2000). Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism (Political science series) (Vol. 72). Wien: Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS). https://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/pol/pw_72.pdf.
Mouffe, C. (2005/2009). On the political. London: Routledge.
Owen, D. (2003). Genealogy as perspicuous representation. In H. J. Cressida (Ed.), The grammar of politics: Wittgenstein and political philosophy (pp. 82–97). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Searle, J. (2010). Making the social world: The structure of human civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1958/1968). Philosophical investigations (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). New York: The MacMillan Company.
Wittgenstein, L. (1969). In G. E. M. Anscombe & G. H. Von Wright (Eds.), On certainty (D. Paul & G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Zigler, R. L. (2002). Revisiting Huxley’s Island: Advancing pragmatic ideals through a vision of utopia. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 23(2), 157–168.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Turanli, A. (2021). Brave New World: A Confinement Between Mythical and Behaviourist World-Views. In: Hornbuckle, C.A., Smith, J.S., Smith, W.S. (eds) Phenomenology of the Object and Human Positioning. Analecta Husserliana, vol 122. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66437-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66437-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-66436-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-66437-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)