Analysis of Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World

761 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The case of utilitarianism

As the story begins, Savage is attempting to free the Deltas by freeing them of their drug addiction. To Savage freedom includes the ability to make rational decisions but the Deltas have no ability to rationalize due to their genetic make-up. As Savage is throwing a way the drugs one of his friends, an Alpha who is capable of reason, approaches him but is stopped by reason. Reason prevents him from helping his friend due to indecision and the inability to calculate the action that will create the best outcome. The angry mob of Deltas are subdued with drugs and anger is replaced with happiness. This example demonstrates that without knowing the consequences of one's action, the original action cannot take place. Members of Huxley's Utopian society have been conditioned to believe in an exaggerated utilitarian ethic. Savage is taken to see The Controller who explains why Utopia has no practical use for the goods of a high culture. Art, science, and religion are not as important as simple pleasure when the end goal is happiness. The Controller has found a perfect recipe for happiness and he argues that the elimination of objective truths and aesthetic beauty were necessary to achieve a quiet peaceful life for everyone. Only, the Alphas have the ability to reason and if it is discovered that they are against the utilitarian regime they are immediately removed from society, to eliminate any possibility of social unrest. (Huxley).

An argument in support of utilitarianism follows the three basic propositions of utilitarianism which are: "(a) Actions are to be judged... by virtue of their consequences ... (b) consequences... [are based on] the amount of happiness or unhappiness created ... (c) each person's happiness counts the same" (R...

... middle of paper ...

...or his duty.

The blatant disregard for objective truth, science, religion, art, and other higher pleasures in Huxley's Utopia simplify Utilitarianism into a caricature at best. The main support offered for the validity of utilitarianism is presented through hedonism. Interestingly Huxley brings up the issue of the value of unhappiness when Helmholtz requests a "thoroughly bad climate" because he will attain a higher pleasure, creativity, while experiencing externally bad conditions. Therefore, I am under the impression that cwould reply that his story of a Brave New World was written to point out how utilitarianism can erode freedom of thought and the ability of science to discover new truths.

Works Cited

Rachels, James and Rachels, Stuart. The Elements of Moral Philosophy, Fifth Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2007. PP 68-88,141-159

Show More
Related

  • Brave New World: Can Man Create Utopia?

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the novel, Huxley uses Bernard Marx, a young man who is “deformed by the government” (Huxley, page #) to underline the idea that a Utopian Society cannot exist. The advancement of technology has enabled this “Utopian Society” to create human life. Although the entire society is based on technology, it remains supervised by humans. No matter how “advanced” this technology may be, if humans are directing it, mistakes will be made “They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle... and put alcohol into his blood- surrogate. That’s why he’s so stunted” (Huxley, 46).

    Read More

  • John Rawls and the Social Contract

    3640 Words  | 8 Pages

    Class notes from PHIL 330, Moral Theory, by Dr. Richard Lippke, Department of Philosophy, and James Madison University. Spring Semester 2002.

    Read More

  • Aldous Huxley's Brave New World-Analysis

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brave New World:  Helplessness      How can one distinguish happiness from unhappiness if unhappiness is never experienced? It's the bad that makes the good look good, but if you don't know the good from the bad, you'll settle for what you're given. Can people judge their feelings without a basis or underlying "rubric" to follow? Such rudimentary guidelines are established through the maturation process and continue to fluctuate as one grows wiser with a vaster array of experiences. Aldous Huxley creates a utopia filled with happiness, but this is merely a facade to a world which is incomplete and quite empty since the essential "experiences" are replaced with "conditioning."

    Read More

  • Genetic Engineering and Social Conditioning in Huxley's Brave New World

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    In his text Brave New World Aldous Huxley imagines a society genetically engineered and socially conditioned to be a fully functioning society where everyone appears to be truly happy. This society is created by each person being assigned a social status from both, much like the caste system in modern society or the social strata applied to everyday society. Huxley shows the issues of class struggle from the Marxist perspective when he writes, “Bokanovky’s process is one of the major instruments of social stability”(Director 7). The director demonstrates that the Bokanovky’s process is a way to control and manage the population much easier. The process consist of creating clones for them to control. This is the process of creating ninety-six

    Read More

  • The Death of John Savage in Brave New World

    2206 Words  | 5 Pages

    A “utopia is that which is in contradiction with reality,” said the famous French novelist Albert Camus in his collection of essays, Between Hell and Reason. History shows us that seemingly exemplary ideals in practice have led to the collapse of societies. Just examine the two most prominent attempts at a utopia: Hitler’s attempt to socialize all of Europe and create the “perfect” Aryan race coupled with Karl Marx’s beliefs to instate communism into society. The final result was the destruction of their perspective visionary worlds. There was one major facet that prevented these two from creating their paradigms: utopias take away individual freedom and identity and therefore society cannot exist. Aldous Huxley’s science fiction novel Brave New World examines the large disconnect between the future and present day societies, showing how several aspects of this dystopian world lead to the downfall of the individual identity, most prominently exemplified by the death of John Savage.

    Read More

  • Aldous Huxley's Dystopian Vision

    2398 Words  | 5 Pages

    What is a utopia? Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary defines _utopia_ as "an imaginary and indefinitely remote place; a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, gov-ernment, and social conditions; *an impractical scheme for social improvement."* In _Brave New World_ Aldous Huxley creates a _dystopia_ (which Webster defines as "an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives") by predicting a pos-sible _utopia_ after many generations. Aldous Huxley analyzes how the utopia degenerated from its original intent into a terrible dystopia. In this essay I will discuss some aspects of this dystopia and relate to Aldous Huxley's dystopian vision.

    Read More

  • Brave New World

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alduos Huxley, in his science fiction novel Brave New World written in 1932, presents a horrifying view of a possible future in which comfort and happiness replace hard work and incentive as society's priorities. Mustapha Mond and John the Savage are the symbolic characters in the book with clashing views. Taking place in a London of the future, the people of Utopia mindlessly enjoy having no individuality. In Brave New World, Huxley's distortion of religion, human relationships and psychological training are very effective and contrast sharply with the literary realism found in the Savage Reservation. Huxley uses Brave New World to send out a message to the general public warning our society not to be so bent on the happiness and comfort that comes with scientific advancements.

    Read More

  • Brave New World - A Letter to Mr. Huxley

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the past few weeks my class and I have been reading your book, “ Brave New World”. While reading your book I have discovered a few captivating issues. These issues include the destruction of the family, the use of drugs, and polygamy (obligatory sex). These issues are interesting because of their implications in life today, and the frequent times they are shown in the book. The ways they are used to control people and make their life easier, and the fact that our world seems to be falling into the same state.

    Read More

  • Social Stability: A Sacrifice Worth Making?

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social stability can be the cause of problems. After reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, we are informed that “Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!” Now is it worth it? Is it worth the sacrifice? Questions like those are addressed throughout the book. Huxley wants to warn us of many things, for example the birth control pill, the way that we can colon ourselves and many other things. He wanted us to know that many of the experiments that they do to the caste in Brave New World, we were later going to do investigate more ourselves or start doing them to others. We have all, at a point; come to a point to the question where we ask ourselves “is it worth it? Is it worth the sacrifice?”

    Read More

  • Totalitarian Government In Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    The people in a society are often a product of the presiding government’s policy. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, many of the citizens are artificially made and act like robots. However, in a reservation next to the new world, there exists a boy named John who was born and raised like a human. John is excited to go the new world because he believes that life will be better there. When John enters the new world, he sees many abnormalities that go against his beliefs, and the citizens call him a savage because he is not one of them. By juxtaposing John, the so-called savage, against the “refined” society, Huxley demonstrates the extreme extent of humankind 's atypical actions under the subjugation of a totalitarian government.

    Read More

  • Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.

    Read More

  • Utopia in Gulliver Travels and Paradise Lost

    2454 Words  | 5 Pages

    Our fascination with utopias stems from our attraction to and pursuit of progress within our own society. We study utopias with the hope that our society will someday evolve into one. But what often goes unnoticed is that if our society improves enough to become utopian, it won't be able to improve any longer. Hence, it will be rigid and unchanging, the complete opposite of what it was as it evolved to its elevated state. This is an awful truth for us because we place value and virtue in the ideas of desire and progress. Our reason tells us: once in an ideal land, desire cannot simply cease to be, because desire is part of our human nature. And our reason is right. An ideal society should accentuate our human nature, not suppress it. As we desire a perfect society we know that a perfect could not exist without our desire. And as long as we desire, we hope for progress. The idea that an utopia wouldn't allow such progress to occur is enough to make us stop believing in utop...

    Read More

  • A Reflection on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    1607 Words  | 4 Pages

    Literature is both shaped by our culture and shapes it. Because of this it is an effective representation of the culture of a time. One can tell how people were affected by the events of the times by how it comes through in their writing. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a prime example of this. The work was targeted at people in a post WWI world. This is a time between WWI and WWII where the world is still shocked by how rapidly the science of war had advanced. People also continue to be appalled with the mass death of a World War caused by such technology and therefore yearn for a more stable world. Because of this yearning, they attempt to create a more stable environment for themselves. Most people had lost faith in the institutions they came to know because those institutions caused the War. Therefore the League of Nations was founded in 1919 only 13 years before “Brave New World” was published in 1932.

    Read More

  • Philosophy: Ethics and Morality

    2484 Words  | 5 Pages

    Johnson, Robert, Johnson,. "Kant's Moral Philosophy." Stanford University. Stanford University, 23 Feb. 2004. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

    395 Words  | 1 Pages

    There were quite a few changes made from Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World to turn it into a “made for TV” movie. The first major change most people noticed was Bernard Marx’s attitude. In the book he was very shy and timid toward the opposite sex, he was also very cynical about their utopian lifestyle. In the movie Bernard was a regular Casanova. He had no shyness towards anyone. A second major deviation the movie made form the book was when Bernard exposed the existing director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Bernard himself was moved up to this position. In the book the author doesn’t even mention who takes over the position. The biggest change between the two was Lenina, Bernard’s girlfriend becomes pregnant and has the baby. The screenwriters must have made this up because the author doesn’t even mention it. The differences between the book and the movie both helped it and hurt it.

    Read More

More about Analysis of Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World

Open Document