Max Jodoin

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Michalson, Gordon

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

Throughout their respectively prolific careers, William James and Aldous Huxley established themselves as two of the most prominent voices of the twentieth century in the West. The breadth of knowledge that is expressed in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1901) by James and Huxley’s Island (1962) aims to address the chaotic pluralism and industrial objectivity of modern life according to the multitude of causes which have rendered the increasingly destructive state of society. Upon looking at James’s proposed “Science of Religion” and Huxley’s ideal vision for human life and society, one encounters the expansive, restless, and experimental nature of their respective worldviews, providing vivid pictures of contemporary life and, when placed in conjunction, outlining the progression of modern society in the West from the turn of the century to the hydrogen bomb. Particularly in these two works, they emphasize the narrow confines of modern thought and the impersonal nature of Western society’s technological advancements without ethical imperatives, while offering a pragmatically viable antidote to this destructive trend. Imploring human life to receptively engage with one’s relations to the various facets of reality’s totality, and to realize one’s full potential as an individual, both James and Huxley provide means to harmoniously reconcile human life’s search for truth with the totality of human nature and existence -- beyond cultural and intellectual prejudices -- which remains relevant even today.

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