We Are Amphibians

by R.S. Deese

"We Are Amphibians" tells the fascinating story of two brothers who changed the way we think about the future of our species. As a pioneering biologist and conservationist, Julian Huxley helped advance the "modern synthesis" in evolutionary biology and played a pivotal role in founding UNESCO and the World Wildlife Fund. His argument that we must accept responsibility for our future evolution as a species has attracted a growing number of scientists and intellectuals who embrace the concept of Transhumanism that he first outlined in the 1950s. Although Aldous Huxley is most widely known for his dystopian novel "Brave New World, " his writings on religion, ecology, and human consciousness were powerful catalysts for the environmental and human potential movements that grew rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century. While they often disagreed about the role of science and technology in human progress, Julian and Aldous Huxley both believed that the future of our species depends on a saner set of relations with each other and with our environment. Their common concern for ecology has given their ideas about the future of "Homo sapiens" an enduring resonance in the twenty-first century. The amphibian metaphor that both brothers used to describe humanity highlights not only the complexity and mutability of our species but also our ecologically precarious situation.

241 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.S. Deese's We Are Amphibians, is a unique and compelling book. I highly recommend it for readers who are interested in the careers of Julian and Aldous Huxley, and to students of the modern ecological movement.

First and most simply, Deese's study is a fascinating double portrait of the intellectual careers of two influential figures of the 20th century, Julian and Aldous Huxley. The book provides insight into the life's work of these two ambitious brothers, one a scientist, the other a novelist. Cleverly, Deese uses the contrasts and confluences of their two careers to shed light on their respective ideas on a wide range of subjects—including ecology, Utopias, and the relationship between the individual and the state—and to show how these shaped the evolution of our current ideas about nature, conservation and ecology.

I thoroughly enjoyed the amphibiousness of Deese's approach: He weaves together literature, biography, science, political science, ecology and (let's face it) sibling rivalry into what is a compelling and highly original work of cultural history that is at once informative and surprisingly readable.