We Are Amphibians (eBook)

Julian and Aldous Huxley on the Future of Our Species

R. S. Deese (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2014
240 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-95956-9 (ISBN)

Infos

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 "e;modern synthesis"e; 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.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations 
Introduction: "The question of questions for mankind" 
1. Late Victorians 
2. Twilight of Utopias 
3. Spiritual Biology 
4. Ape and Essence 
5. We Are Amphibians 
Epilogue: The Future of Our Species 
Acknowledgments 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.11.2014
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
• Schlagworte: Biology • Brave New World • Comparative Religion • conservation • conservationism • Dystopia • Ecology • evolutionary biology • Future • future of our species • Human consciousness • Humanity • Human progress • huxley brothers • International Politics • Modern Synthesis • Political Science • Politics • precarious situation • Religion • Religious Studies • Responsibility • Transhumanism • two brothers • UNESCO • United Nations • united nations educational scientific and cultural organization • world wildlife fund
• ISBN-10: 0-520-95956-6 / 0520959566
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-95956-9 / 9780520959569