The Human Situation: Lectures at Santa Barbara 1959

by Aldous Huxley, Piero Ferrucci

Em 1959, Aldous Huxley proferiu uma série de conferências na Universidade da Califórnia, que foram excepcionais por sua visão e vasta erudição.
O tema de Huxley foi o relacionamento do Homem com seu planeta e ele abordou questões que se tornaram - como anteviu - cruciais para a sobrevivência da civilização.
Estes ensaios foram agora reunidos para publicação neste livro.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, History, Psychology, British Literature, Science

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

Reviews

[Greg]

This is a book that every human on the planet should choose to read. Hopefully one day I will flesh this paragraph out a bit, but until then - please find a copy and read it.

[Katherine]

Some notes and quotes from the "More Nature in Art" essay:

- "We know enough to repair a good deal of the damage which has already been done to our planet and to prevent further damage from occurring. The necessary information and knowledge exist. But as usual there is a great gap between the ability to do a thing and the likelihood of it being done. It is very easy to describe the conservation methods which should be put into effect at once, but it is extraordinarily difficult to carry out what we know we can do." (p. 28)
- "It is extremely difficult for human beings to follow a course which, though it may be manifestly helpful in the long run, in the short run imposes hardships upon them. ...This is not merely a question of organization and capital; it is a question of getting people to accept certain ideas." (p. 29)
- "We are capable of committing crimes of violence against nature, and they are as bad in their way as crimes of wanton violence committed against men. It is unfortunate that this idea did not go on into the Judaeo-Christian tradition, where the fundamental notion is that man is the lord of creation and is in some way apart from nature and free to do what he wants with it." (p.31)
- P. 33 details the experiments by D.O. Hebb at McGill University and John C. Lilly at the National Institute of Health on the effects of "limited environment" - the effects on humans being cut off from external stimuli, the psychological and physiological dependence on our environment. Also noted on this page is that the environment is not limited by human-imposed regions.
- P. 40 details the movement away from nature in art, in favour of technology

[Tarun Rattan]

This is a pertinent book in the current chaotic world as it deep dives into the human condition and unravels the social, economic and ecological problems facing mankind. The book enlightens the mind with its profound breadth of learning and its fantastic range of knowledge. This is a collection of lectures given by Aldous Huxley at University of California, Santa Barbara in 1959. In these lectures Huxley begins with biological foundations of human civilisation - the state of the planet, population, heredity in relation to environment. Then he tries to cover how modern civilisation with its use of technology impacts the social and political order. Lastly he delves into the individual and his potentialities, and what we might perhaps do about their realisation.

The range of scholarship and understanding revealed in the book is remarkable. I learned so much through Huxley's discourse on religion, mysticism, eugenics, personal freedom, the nature of art, imagination and consciousness. One surprise for me was his deep understanding of Hindu philosophy and how it complements the western tradition. This book illuminates with extraordinary clarity not the problems faced by the modern civilisation but also the future potentialities of the modern world.

[Julia Langnes]

*read in English, because high school never taught me any Spanish besides ridiculous conversation starters
Dear ole Huxley. One of my favourite authors and people of all time. You can just imagine my excitement at being able to read some of Huxley's speeches straight from the horses mouth, to see the thinking behind the man I've so long admired. I wanted a glimpse into the man behind the bitter quotes. The book did not quite do this, but I enjoyed reading it. The book did make me feel a little out of my depth, which probably means I should revisit it later in a more serious manner and be able to understand a little more. So I'll do just that, reserve some judgement for once.

[Rhonda Hankins]

Collection of lectures Huxley gave in 1959. I found the lecture topics too broad to really get a lot out of this book. There were too many "there is no time to go into this in detail" references.

For me the second half of the book covered topics of more interest than the first half of the book but even so I only got a quick peek at his thinking on a particular idea/concept before he moved on to something else; overall pretty disappointing.

It seems clear to me that even the great Aldous Huxley cannot do justice to The Human Situation in one-hour lectures for one academic year.

[João Vitor]

Aldous Huxley is undoubtedly a visionary man. This book is impressive by its before his time ideas. Today there are some topics quite outdated. Nevertheless the book is great for getting an idea of the main topics and concerns of early post war era. On the top of that, Huxley manages to surprise most readers every now and then through out the book. I recommend for Huxley fans and people interested in philosophy and history, not an amazing literature piece.

[Ellie Graham]

I absolutely adored this book. Every word that Huxley utters passes through the 50+ years since these lectures were given and cuts like a knife. His encouragement towards holistic and lateral thinking is much needed still today, and I think everyone would benefit from reading this. Three of the last lectures on art, religion, and visions are particularly brilliant.

[Sergio Bolea]

Es muy sorprendente ver que afirmaciones que están a la orden del día ya se mencionaran con tanta fuerza hace 50 años: transición ecológica, necesidad de repensar el modelo urbano, los peligros tecnológicos…

[Lucille]

no geral, é uma boa leitura além de ter uma linguagem muito acessível, trazendo reflexões e embates q em alguns pontos já estão meio desatualizados, talvez pela época em q foi lançado, mas nada que atrapalhe a experiência com a obra!

[Trupti]

Truly remarkable! These lectures delivered in 1959 hold so much relevance and truth in 2026. Aldous Huxley’s depth and breadth of knowledge is astounding. This book is to be kept as a personal copy and read time and time again.

[Argho Sinha]

One of the most informative books I've read, yet.
Really changes the way you look at this world.

[Joaquim Ferreira]

Visão muito interessante de Aldous HUXLEY sobre a realidade humana.

[Julián Osorio]

Me disculpan la guachada pero que hpta librazo! 10/10

[Chakib Sofiane]

the insights that Huxley gives are unique, even more so today, such thoughts as are expressed in these lectures do not hold ground today. But I learned unbearably well.

[Terry]

This book describes three important aspects of self: rational, art, and social. It then suggests that all our knowledge in their separate disciplines should be made personal and integrated in each of these three aspects. By doing this Huxley suggests that the human situation on Earth would improve. he quotes an amazing number of sources, all authorities in different subjects. I found this book similar to Critical Path but much more dated (1959) and less inspired.

[Raja]

This book written almost a century ago reverberates today more than ever. It's penetrating insight into the psychological, spiritual and physiological condition of contemporary man is unparalleled. Anyone who wants to better understand their place in this crazy world ought to read this book.

These assertive statements stand alone, without any evidence to back them up. You want evidence? Go pick up the book and read it. You'll find what you're looking for there.

[Austin Castellanos]

Greatest thing you will ever read.

[James Raynes]

Essential reading. I'd love to see someone else put together a similar analysis of 'the human situation' as we might see it in 2014.

[David]

One of my favorite books, I frequently revisit it to reread chapters

[Zin Khant Aung]

This book is even more profound the second time around.