Huxley And Graaf Argument Essay

Aldous Huxley and John de Graaf, the two authors in question today, both raise the question of who in this society can become philosophically enlightened to the fullest degree. Huxely believes that only the top tier, or the “alpha society” as he presents them, can truly become philosophically enlightened. On the other hand, de Graaf never truly states who can become enlighted, thus not limiting who within the confines of his book has the power to truly become an enlightened person. This leads to the main argument in which I believe that Aldous Huxley and John de Graaf do not fully agree that only society’s “alpha elites” are candidates for philosophical enlightenment, but rather have extremely different views upon who can truly be considered …show more content…
The first author that should be focused on is Aldous Huxley. Huxley is best known for his book which analyzes the world and what our future may be that is titled quite appropriately, A Brave New World. Published in 1932, it was one of the first books to not only critic the social order that was currently in place, but look toward a better future in which this order could be defeated effectively. With the novel taking place in 2540, I believe that he was trying to create an educated guess as about whether the people of our society would break the chains of the illusion that was implanted into their minds and find true enlightenment through any means necessary in their own society. In the story, we meet John the Savage. John has an enlightened mind due to being able to find works that are freeing of the mind, such as Shakespeare. Unfortunately, he can not properly control his true freedom of philosophical enlightenment, and tries to stir the masses of those around him by spreading his knowledge of a free and enlightened world, thus, leading himself to a defeat by the very same people that he was trying to free from the slavery of the mind