In this lecture, Huxley develops an ”ideal of the open society of open individuals.“ To reach this ideal, he points out, contrary to what ”many of the older eugenicists“ believed, ”[i]t’s not enough just to sterilize the unfit or try to breed deferentially from the more fit. It is necessary to have the best possible […]
The Human Situation, Lecture 3 – More Nature in Art
In this lecture, Huxley elaborates on the changes he believes are necessary to “remedy the damage we’ve done and prevent further damage being accomplished” to “the world, the home, in which [man] makes his travels through the universe.” In this connection he proposes three areas of interest: Ethics, philosophy and aesthetics. His conclusion is “that practically we are in a […]
Huxley’s Final Revolution
This lecture from January 26, 1959 is very well know for the paragraph “And it seems to me perfectly on the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and of producing a kind of—producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak. Producing a […]
The Human Situation, Lecture 1 – Integrated Education
This is the first lecture in a series of 18 lectures that Aldous Huxley gave at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the fall semester of 1959 The Human Situation. Huxley became an honorary professor of literature and a professor-at-large at that university that same year. In Huxleys own words he will “take various features […]
Huxley’s Ultimate Revolution
This lecture by the late A. Huxley is best known for the following quote: “If you are going to control any population for any length of time, you must have some measure of consent. It’s exceedingly difficult to see how pure terrorism can function indefinitely. It can function for a fairly long time, but I think […]