Plato the Republic and Huxley's Brave New World Term Paper

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Plato the Republic and Huxley's Brave New World

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE SOCIETY IN BRAVE NEW WORLD MOST CLOSELY PARALLEL THE IDEAL CITY DESCRIBED BY PLATO IN THE REPUBLIC?

In some modes the essence of The Republic is regarded as very complicated, however, it enjoins together completely to prepare the attitude of Plato on the society and government. It is transparent that the Platonic society is to be greatly hierarchical as is with the society in Huxley's World State. The model city state as per Plato had three hierarchal section. The 'Artisans' constitute the lowest class of the society, comprising of the laborers and artisans whose main objectives are concentrated in their sensations. Their immediate job is to attain skill in action upon the physical plane. The class above this lowest stratum is 'Auxillaries' comprising of the men who with their influential passions and attitudes are persistently struggling with themselves. Plato would entail such men the warriors of the nation thus according them the definite scope to develop the courage and fortitude essential at their stage of development. The administrative class known as 'Guardians' is consisting of those men who have acknowledged the way of governing themselves, and are therefore, suitable to govern others. (Ancient Landmarks: Plato) In the model of Huxley's Brave New World there also exist a hierarchical classification of the society. The society of Huxley comprises of the five primary categories or castes: such as alphas attaining the leadership status, Betas attaining the positions requiring high intelligence, Gammas and Deltas attaining positions that demand some intelligence and Epsilons are positions requiring no intelligence. (Chapter: Introduction to Aldous Huxley)

The society of Huxley's Brave New World is governed by the government. Similar to the Brave New World of Huxley, the ideal city of the Plato also exerts total regulation to the government. This government could visualize the philosopher kings and directed by their assistants implements a firm set of moral standards with an objective of teaching virtue and goodness to the common people. (Theme Analysis) The next line of advocacy is that the analysis of both Plato and Huxley had close resemblance in terms of freedom and choice. Huxley like Plato had always been related to threats to man's liberty and independence. He acknowledged that communism and fascism accords the state above the individual and requires total devotion to a cause. Acknowledging the hazards of communism and fascism, he corresponds to the ultimate consequence of this tendency in his fantasy and therefore, he was in and accorded sufficient significance to the government. (Chapter: Introduction to Aldous Huxley)

Another close proximity associates with the positions of women in the city-state of Plato and that of the society of Huxley. In the future society of Huxley the male scientists have completely exploited the material activity, declining the female role and giving rise to a female disempowerment. On the one hand while it is advocated that only deliverance from motherhood permits a woman to attain true equality, on the other hand in Brave New World the isolation between sex and reproduction does not seem to have liberated or empowered women. The Platonic New World State also appears to perpetuate the conventional sex-role inequality. In fact the only woman who captures a leading office and who is a member of upper class in a freemartin: she has thus attained the logical power by sacrificing her true femininity. (Platonism and Twentieth Century Literature) Education is a primary concern to Plato and Hexley in the city-state and society. It assists in preparing the people for life in the new world. (Science Fiction Studies) Thus while Huxley imagined of an ideal commonwealth instituted and maintained by careful control, Plato also signified on an ideal city-state exercised by necessary regulation.

WHICH OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS DESCRIBED BY HUXLEY DO YOU THINK PLATO WOULD HAVE USED IN HIS IDEAL CITY? WHY?

The mapping of Huxley with regard to a future world in which human life is regarded as a mass production by accurate engineering parameters in accordance with strict practical values attached to an emotional thread for Americans struggling with the assurances and heralds of modernity. (Brave New World: Soma, Shakespeare, and Suicide: The Terrors of Techno Utopia) At the moment Huxley indicated the Brave New World was only one of the relative few studies scientists were associated with conditioning, the significance of heredity and environment, and the influence of chemical imbalance on physical and mental development. Presently, governments, educational institutions and industries are taking advantage of the studies in such fields.

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Huxley pointed out that in any single decade since 1900 the progress made in Science and technology have overshadowed the progress occurred during any previous century. Men seems to have created higher than he could climb, man had the unregulated strength that he was unable to regulate. Huxley tried to make man acknowledge that since knowledge is the power he was not able to regulate. He who regulates and utilized knowledge exerts the strength. (Chapter: Introduction to Aldous Huxley)

Engineering principles and mass production techniques narrated by Huxley in the Brave New World have been deployed by Plato in respect of his Ideal State. Huxley indicated that there is a regulation over genetics and reproduction that has the advantage of eliminating uncertainty or what biomedical ethicists indicate to as sexual roulette. Not acknowledging what will come out when one engages in intercourse nor, what kind of child one might beget in consequence. Genetic and reproductive regulation makes us possible to eliminate that ambiguity and to eliminate the consequences, sometimes better, of the natural and genetic gamble. (Brave New World: Soma, Shakespeare, and Suicide: The Terrors of Techno Utopia) It is to be acknowledged that Plato would have recognized such technological advances ever since Plato had such a high regard for the sciences that had their rein in our rationalizing capabilities and that he imagined these to be some manner to be proximately associated with the ultimate transcendent reality. (Art, science and transcendence: A comparison between Tolstoy and Plato)

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLATO CITY AND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD SOCIETY?

Huxley reveals that the republic of Plato with regard to the rigid stability and unity -- a society with less personal liberty and virtually no innovation is constant and sterile. In Brave New World, Huxley discards primitive and pastoral excellence. In contrast to the escapist utopia of private pleasures is the ideal commonwealth instituted and regulated by careful control. This kind of Utopia that the Republic of Plato is the best acknowledged illustration entails that the individual must entail much of his liberty for the privilege of living in the divine city and continuing the good. The societies of Brave New World were directed towards objective which Huxley regards as unsuccessful and frequent destructive to the human spirit. (Science Fiction Studies)

Thus irrespective of the fact that the Republic is much more narrative than prescriptive, Huxley strongly contradicts the works appears to have authoritarian touch. He cannot recognize the Republic to be the descriptive of the good, and he fairly cannot acknowledge the work as a recommendation for attaining enviable objectives. As per the philosophy of Huxley, it is an illustration of the type of utopia that must be discarded. Next advocacy of difference is that like present residents in less 'perfect' nations, utopians sometimes discover it essential to make themselves ready for the hazards of attack. The citizens in Plato's state are warriors. Contrary to them the Pala of Huxley does not entail the peculiar defenses, thus is quite easily assaulted by armored vehicles and foreign troops. (Science Fiction Studies)

IN WHAT WAYS ARE MOND IDEAS SIMILAR TO THOSE OF PLATO AND IN WHAT WAYS ARE MOND IDEAS DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF PLATO? EXPLAIN WHY?

In the Brave New World, Mustapha Mond realizes that each individual leads their living as compared to a life within a bottle. Mond's views are for all the people of the society of the Brave New World. Mond is of the opinion that this bottle regulates what they consider and their responses to varied conditions which occur while living. Mond states that such a life leads people to have the environment and their thinking to be rigid and non-changeable. Thus the life in the bottle shows our way of thinking and actions. Plato had a resemblance to Mond's ideas and such an idea was shown by means of an allegory of the Cave. The cave could be compared to the bottle of Mond. Just as the individuals living within a bottle, the individuals living within a cave had no idea as to what was happening outside the cave. They have no information as to the revelations of what is going outside and their thoughts are restricted to within the cave. They understand what they can witness from their stay at the cave. Plato's cave indicated that "people perceive just a simulacrum of reality, shadows thrown upon the wall of a cave, artifice and deception rather….....

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