The Perennial Philosophy is defined by its author as "The metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds." With great wit and stunning intellect, Aldous Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains them in terms that are personally meaningful.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSACTION EDITION -- I GOALS, ROADS AND CONTEMPORARY STARTING POINT -- II THE NATURE OF EXPLANATION -- III EFFICACY AND LIMITATIONS OF LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL REFORM -- IV SOCIAL REFORM AND VIOLENCE -- V THE PLANNED SOCIETY -- VI NATURE OF THE MODERN STATE -- VII CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION -- VIII DECENTRALIZATION AND SELF-GOVERNMENT -- IX WAR -- X INDIVIDUAL WORK FOR REFORM -- (...) XI INEQUALITY -- XII EDUCATION -- XIII RELIGIOUS PRACTICES -- XIV BELIEFS -- XV ETHICS -- INDEX. (shrink)

Une réédition qui a son intérêt. A. Huxley avait publié ##Philosophie perennis## en 1945, treize ans après ##Le meilleur des mondes##. C'est le livre d'un grand voyageur, où sont assemblées des vues sur tout, et où Huxley se défend du pessimisme par ces deux formes de l'intelligence à l'affût d 'elle-même que sont l'ironie et le savoir. Index.

'What is called the utopian dream of pacifism is in fact a practical policy - indeed the only practical, the only realistic policy that there is.' Aldous Huxley. Over 50 years and 100 million war-related deaths later, and with the world in turmoil, the truth of Huxley's views is felt by more and more people. -/- But pacifism continues to be ill understood, a problem to which pacifists themselves sometimes contribute. The title of Huxley's classic book, Ends and Means, in (...) a sense, describes the core of pacifism; the essay from which the title of this pamphlet is taken rehearses that debate and asks 'Can good ends be achieved by bad means?' Can, for example, the death of children, surely the most innocent of victims and amongst the most common casualties in any war, be justified on any grounds? This is a challenge to the apologists of war who claim it a moral means to an end. But the rhetoric of war, as indeed the apparent imperative to prepare for war, with all the jobs and family comforts that making and selling guns and bullets provide, crowds out this simple question, lest we are discomfited by our answer. -/- Huxley's views are as pertinent and challenging today as the day they were written - and perhaps more urgent. (shrink)