Brave New World Revisited

Since my new student has to write a paper on Huxley's Brave New World, I took the opportunity yesterday to re-read this work. (The last time I've read this book is when I was in grade ten.) Rereading it refreshes in my mind a vital questions for a philosopher: What does it mean to be human? I had not had a good chance to really think about it until the time of the lesson. After destroying the first page of my student's essay (which is quite typical: most of the people I know of do not write good first drafts - I am not being arrogant, as this also include myself; anybody who has seen my editing process will be scared), I decided to tell my student to rewrite the essay after thinking about what the novel is really saying. She wanted to write that the ideal state in Brave New World is a failure. I asked her why, and after much persuasion, she was persuaded to agree with me that the ideal state lacks an outlet for the expression of humanity. (I did not forcing her to agree with my view; it's just that her original thesis, while it is essentially the same, lacks the clarity of expression as well as the depth of thought.) Then I pushed on, and asked her "what does it mean to be human?" She seemed to have no answer, and I gave her a two hour talk on how Huxley depicts the "lack of humanity" in Brave New World.

So, what does it mean to be human? I had given my student a list of things: wholeness, creativity, emotions and freedom. Now I wonder: is this a good list? On the surface it seems so. (I am confident that with that list she will be able to write a decent paper.)

But come to think of it, perhaps I am missing one very important element: pride. As it is the greatest sin, so pride, I now come to think, is also the most human, most earthly quality. This very question "what does it mean to be human?" is not stimulated by emotions, nor creativity, nor a yearning for whole, nor freedom; it is stimulated by pride. Only a boost boy would ask the question "what makes me different from other boys?"; similiarly, only human beings would ask to be differientated from animals and robots.

John the Savage is often considered as the standard "human being" in Brave New World: he read Shakespeare, loved his mother, believed in Jesus, and chose to kill himself. But to me, he does not seem to be a particularly proud person.

A person without pride: how human is he?