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The n AB radio network presents all this Huxley with the third lecture in a series and titled What a piece of work is a man. This lecturer a consideration of the individual in relation to history was recorded at Crissy auditorium for broadcast at this time. Here now to introduce Mr. Huxley is Giorgio de Santa Ana professor of the history of philosophy MIT and I happened to see the times to my students in moments of miscomprehension. Gentlemen you are the man from Mars. You ought to get acquainted with this our planet. We have only here to try and help you. I should like therefore to pay my special respects to Mr Huxley who was not only a master to my generation but in this specific issue. He's the one who perhaps the most to introduce us to this planet. If I play a little with the time one name comes to my mind which makes us. Feel a parallel to his
it is the name of Plutarch's with his model essays the great span of time but I think I think it is a deserved compliment. Sometime. Someone. Should draw that parallel between Mr Huxley and Plutarch's. He would find for instance that Mr Huxley has it harder as he's caught in the cause of progress. What is not. Lightness and indefiniteness which include dark make the present. Appear as one. I'm not grounded too I thought Huxley was a long trail of intellectual adventure leads him now to ask anxiously of himself and of us what are we going to do with the next problem which is the overpopulation of the globe. There are no such end of the train problems for proof. All is quiet curiosity has had an effect on the other hand if Plutarch's seems to us so often vague and diffuse it is because he lacks the definiteness that modern science has built into our thought and into our language.
Of this consciousness of science all the way to bring it together with humanistic tradition. Mr. Huxley has become a master in our own time and he assured us not only how the facts of science modify our life but how the experience of science in those who can have it modifies the instigator of our consciousness to use the word that he has used himself out of one. Of the great exponents of culture. He's the one who has remained closed through the years to the scientific awareness this is what gives point and relevance to his criticism to his doubts. To his mystical conclusions which last into dark seem impersonal almost a matter of course and of one piece with his background. Mr Huxley is going to speak to us today of the problems of the individual. Here again how tragically different his predicament from that of new car stands in history as the expression of unselfconscious resplendent individuality. Mr. Huxley has shown us in his work many facets of the modern problem of individuality in
his novels and in Brave New World. He is also the historical performance of it from high to low temperatures after the devils of Buddha from perverse aestheticism. To the gathering progress of massive realization. I see him in that respect as the master of anatomy holding the scalpel in the Rembrandts famous painting. Now for further light. Mr Huxley with us the mental vision of his generation has been the witness to the decomposition of European rationalism in the period since 1914. There is a strange disorganized properly demented will to power underlying rationalism. In that time. Which by now. Has spread to the rest of the world not sparing even this country. I should say kind of reverie or fantasy which asked the intellect only to live the means whereby its own folly may become acceptable. Men caught in projection a lever a disconnect their sensibility arbitrary rationalizations action at all costs.
This is the intellectual predicament in which we moved and which draws so many to surrender the pure power the military and other force. This proves efficiently that in our time we have lost the principle of truth. And the principle of individual existence. It's just not a tooth I once found a little old woman who had never heard yet that God was there. Now. It has been discovered that man too was dead and there was a frantic search for someone to entrust his succession shapes dreams and possibilities came up and challenged. The only decision was whether facing events they would break through or fall. The test of the validity of our thought was and is. One. And only one. The dreadful arbitrement of history. If Mr. Huxley had played subtly with that theme of demonic possession and has to be thanked for it recently even the European press as I've shown. It is a group of his inside. But given as another and more striking image about time or at least I think it to be
such but he sometimes speaks in symbols and darkly. I refer to his essay on those wonderful engravings of the boxer. Those portraits of the ruins. And splendid us all but after all. That is a series of those engravings which is called the prisons and this is what he has to say I'm going to quote out of his variations on the presence of. The most disquieting the obvious fact about all these dungeons is the perfect pointlessness which reigns throughout their architecture is colossal and inefficient. One is made to feel that the genius of great artists and the labor of innumerable slaves have gone into the creation of these monuments. Every detail of which is completely without a purpose. Yes without a purpose for the staircases lead nowhere the Vaal support nothing but their own weight and enclose vast spaces that are never truly rooms but only enter rooms lumber rooms that's the views out houses. And this magnificence of cyclopean root store store is everywhere and its quantity by wooden ladders by flames by flimsy gangways and catwalks. But even where the enclosure is more or less complete
Peter Naisi always contrived to give the impression that this colossal pointlessness goes on indefinitely and this extensive with the universe. Engaged in Nordic advisedly to the attention to one another. If you're a small faceless figure in the shadows that is significant presence merely emphasizes the fact. That there is nobody at home. This trust is a good hint that we have a lot to learn from him about. This exasperating somewhat wonderful and that of a planet. This. Gentleman I'm going to talk tonight about a subject which looks on the face of it. Fairly simple and obvious but which is not a
simple when one examines. The relationship of the. Two history. Making an analogy out of the world of physics. The relationship between a guess and its component molecules of gas deal with the volumes of pressure and temperatures into dependence. But when we pass from the gases to the component molecules we find that an individual molecule has no pressure. No temperature and virtually no volume. All that hair is in this particular context take energy and a tendency to random movement. We see then that the laws of gases are profoundly
different from the laws governing individual molecules. And I think we can see that something of the same kind is true in relation to societies enduring over long periods of history and the individuals composing those societies. A society is really not an organism it is just an organization it has no powers of perception no powers of thought no powers of will. And in this respect of course it differs profoundly from the organisms which compose it. Now of course one of the most striking facts about the difference between individuals and societies is the extent to which their. Their life their biographies I would say is predictable in regard
to. Societies which are composed of very large numbers. There is a fairly high degree of predictability. Any large mass of numbers can of course subject to fairly accurate prediction. We can work out the average behavior of the innumerable particles within those. Those large numbers pretty certainly right. Naturally the larger the numbers the more exact a loss. The numbers involved in even a very large society taken over a very long period are extremely small of course compared with the numbers which we deal with in physics. For this reason naturally the laws or regularities we find in social messages are much less exact than the laws and regularities we find in societies.
Nevertheless there are detectable irregularities in societies existing over long periods. They are certainly significant. One of the sort of practical demonstrations of the difference between prediction in regard to individuals and prediction in regard to large numbers is illustrated by consideration of fortune tellers on the one hand and insurance companies on the other. Both are concerned with the business of foretelling the future. But where else. As far as I know no fortune teller has ever ended up as a millionaire. No insurance company if it's reasonably well manages ever gone bankrupt. So we see that there is a profound practical difference between the two types of prediction where very large numbers are involved. We can't predict sufficiently well for insurance
companies to become immensely rich and to own practically everything in a country like this where as fortune tellers even the best of them are extremely in their predictions. And as I say never in making great fortunes. Of course in relationship to large numbers to societies this is when one can say of them that the nature of the social law or social irregularities cannot be discovered by means of empathy. Individuals by feeding into their state of mind or even making inquiries about them. This will not tell us about the social regularities of the historical group of which they are members. Conversely neither will the irregularities which are
detectable in the larger groups tell us much about the destiny of any given individual. The actuarial activities of insurance companies will tell us that the average age of a man is whatever it is 69 of a woman 72. But this does not permit us to say that Mr germs will die punctually at 16 I know that Mrs. Jones will live on for three years longer. This is merely at the statement of a regularity of. Which can be observed when we look at very large numbers. And of course as it's now been realised since the time of almost all general laws of nature are essentially statements concerned with very large numbers that there is therefore this profound difference between
the laws governing the great numbers of large societies enduring for a long period of time and the laws governing individuals. Now let us examine specifically what is the relationship between the individual. And his society. Any individual of course is surrounded by history and his life runs parallel with a section of history. But to what extent in history to what extent can he experience this process which is going on this large scale in relationship to the great masses of people. Now first of all let us inquire what is history. This of course many historians have brought up different definitions of history.
But I would like to cite one of them the definition of history given by a contemporary philosophic historian Arnold Toynbee. What he says is this and what he begins by asking a question. What could be singled out. As the see event of our time by future historians. Not any of the tragic sensation or catastrophic events that fill the headlines and occupy our minds. The impact of Western civilization on other cultures and the reaction of those cultures and western civilization and the ultimate emergence of a religion and the unity of mankind. This is one way of looking at history one philosophical way needless to say there are many others. But all of them I think take this extremely why a generalized
view of history and the problem and then of course is what is the relationship between an ordinary individual and this kind of history. Obviously if we consider. Toynbee's view of the important historical events of our time and nobody in our living is aware of this history this is such a this is a process on such a very large scale and over such a very long period that no single individual can really be conscious of it. So that in this sense the the individual. He's not living the history which seems important to the philosophical historian here. The only sort of history he is consciously leaping in is the kind of catastrophic history of the headlines and going to his relationship to
those a little bit later. The philosophical historian of course is in the curious condition of the situation where he has to lead a double life an ordinary family man and cities and he is living as a molecule obviously. But he is thinking there's I guess trying to think as a gas. And this I think does in a sense produce a kind of schizophrenia in him which must be I think very uncomfortable but nevertheless it is something which I think we all have to undergo this kind of schizophrenia of the immediacy of individual life and the the wit and general generality of life on the great scale. But now let us consider what is the relation of the individual even into the what may be called the same history the
catastrophic events of our time. Quite apart from the emergence of a new religion and the action and reaction of cultures upon one another in general the relationship between the people men and women in these events. Now before we go into close examination of this letter's does ask ourselves the question how much of any individual life is related to history on either of the scales on the fully gauge scale or the seamy gaze your scale. Well the first thing that strikes us is of course of most extraordinary that every human being passes a full third of his life completely outside of history and even outside of space and time that is to say he spends eight hours a day asleep. This is a
profoundly important and interesting fact it is the fact that we can for one third of our life escape from our rich egos and their problems. The only thing which permits us to remain healthy and see it is known perfectly well that if people are cut off from sleep for any length of time they will have a psychotic break and they will also become physically very ill and passed on from the question of sleep to alert. As for human life and for this to me go on a little bit further with sleep. This is really. The more one thinks about sleep the more extraordinary it is. I mean it's fantastic to remember that for eight hours each day even the most violent fanatic even the most
fiendishly difficult becomes so to say reconciled with the order of nature he ceases to be and becomes this completely innocent and harmless creature. And I mean of which thank heaven it does put a certain limit to the amount of harm he can do. Financial operator does have his life in a state of innocence concerning. What is this console where us human beings can refresh themselves and gain new insights during their sleep organizations. They are like electronic machines which have been programmed in a certain way and
which go on doing this thing indefinitely until somebody comes along and either smashes the machine or puts in a new program. But they go on in a state of chronic insomnia. This particular thing that they were programmed to do and I think this is one of the reasons why when we examine the history of states and searches we find so often that. The records of doing seem to be those of a kind of insanity. I remember when I was at school used to seeing a witch when how did it go. You see the church being thrown into the light. Through all the watches keeping and rests not now of a day or night. This of course may account for the extremely unfortunate nature of
ecclesiastical history. The Church. The church never sleeps and is therefore gets no sort of direct refreshment I mean fortunately its individual members sleep and have kind of inspirations from the from the beyond their own egos and with immense difficulties can introduce reforms but there is no way in which an organization however may fear itself afresh itself through sleep. That there is this profound difference between them. If the individual were in these large scale organizations that defective sleep I think is of enormous importance which we can't overlook. Now. From sleep let us pass to some of the other
aspects of human life which are to a very large extent outside of history. Obviously birth and infancy are almost completely outside of history and even a great deal of childhood seems to go on with virtually no relation with the great historical process is going on and the same thing is true of death of decrepitude preceding death and death itself. But again factors outside of history the. Decrepit person is not aware of the great historical processes going on around him and even relatively little aware of the short range history he's mainly aware with the diminution of his powers the narrowing of his attention the general. Closing of everything around him. Some consciously historical figures have tried
very hard to to die in a historical way it is reported for example of Daniel Webster that when he was dying he was on his deathbed. He talked almost incessantly to his friends and indeed up to shortly before expiring. By turning to them and saying that I said anything worthy of Daniel Webster. After that closely the silence closed in that even the most historically minded person. Has to yield finally to the ultimate facts of physiology in the spirit. In the end if you do a persona to raise the mask his mask is ripped off and only the reality remains. Not merely childhood and old age
outside history but even considerable parts of sickness. Many people spend quite a number of years of their life healing hills while they are in this state they are again much really profoundly out of touch with the cultural historical life of their times much more completely preoccupied with their own bodily feelings and the sense of diminution which is going on in their in their life. And when we add up the amount of time. He spent I mean you say in a life span of 70 years. How much time is spent outside of history. We find that adding sleep to childhood and the average period of decrepitude and a third of the sickness we found about forty years of a 70
year lifespan us print side of history. I think this is a very strange and interesting fact. Here we are immersed in history. Here we are the component molecules of a great social gas and yet as far as our consciousness is concerned more than half our lifespan is passed away from this to this world. The question of private life I mean even when we are mature and fully awake. We have the choice between living in a sort of continuous context with the historical movements going on around us or leaving a strictly private life. The biggest definition of private life that I know of. Are was given by Rosen of the. Russian if she is to die shortly after the resolute revolution. Curious an interesting writer
who described a desirable private life as picking one's nose and looking at the sunset. No one thinks of this the better the teaser. It's so wonderful definition. You can generalize it and point out the private life and joy of a private life is of course the enjoyment of physiological processes on one side of the static intellectual and static process on the. Runoffs definition I think sums up a great deal of what our life is. We can of course go further into this I mean it's quite clear for example that the six year life is profoundly non historical there. Are cultural arrangements do their best to regulate
marriage and sexual life in general but. The direct experience of sexual life and the reason why it's so profoundly important to people I think is precisely because it takes us out of history out of cultural relationships with the sort of boring pattern or even out of our personal identity. This of course the effect of sex being a kind of holiday from personal identity and from cultural historical values was a stressed again and again. Lawrence in his books I mean he's the kind of. Religion is the religion of the dark gods the kind of mystical materialism of Lawrence's books are essentially about the it's about the possibility of escaping through the blood to see causes to Noyon Istari couldn't
even work. And of course over and above the various physiological escapes from history and ourselves. There are the various estatic and intellectual escapes which are of immense importance I think to a great many people and it's interesting in this context to look at look into the history look into the biographies of the people who have understood to be introspective and have understood the nature of their own lives and to see what they have to see about this effect.
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Series
What a piece of work is a man
Episode
Individual in relation to history, part 1
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-ww76zf8p
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Description
Episode Description
This program presents the first part of a lecture by Aldous Huxley entitled "The Individual in Relation to History."
Series Description
Aldous Huxley presents a lecture series in which he asks, "how did our ancestors think of human nature and in what terms ought we to think about it?"
Broadcast Date
1961-10-10
Topics
Philosophy
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:30:07
Credits
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
Speaker: Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963
Speaker: De Santillana, Giorgio, 1902-
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 61-56-3 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:29:51
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Citations
Chicago: “What a piece of work is a man; Individual in relation to history, part 1,” 1961-10-10, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-ww76zf8p.
MLA: “What a piece of work is a man; Individual in relation to history, part 1.” 1961-10-10. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-ww76zf8p>.
APA: What a piece of work is a man; Individual in relation to history, part 1. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-ww76zf8p