Autonomy In Brave New World Essay

Does a person that is conditioned to be happy from birth have a good life despite their lack of freedom? The majority of citizens in The Brave New World lived such a life. They were grown in a laboratory, psychologically manipulated to believe that their assigned career was their passion, and spent their downtime under the influence of the government supplied miracle drug, soma. Can a life without autonomy be considered a good life? Furthermore, what is a good life? There are multiple theories as to what the components of a good life are, but only one can be true because each theory blatantly contradicts the others. The Desire Satisfaction Theory is a subjectivist view that states that a life is good if and only if it fulfills our desires (Shafer-Landau

44). Hedonism is a partially subjective view because happiness is a personal feeling that can be achieved different ways for everyone, but also objective in the sense that happiness is the only component of a good life (Shafer-Landau 24). The Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare is purely objective and states that happiness is not the only component of a good life, although it may be one of the many parts, and that there are other factors that lead to a good life whether a person desires them or not (Shafer-Landau 46). The Desire Satisfaction Theory and Hedonism would support the idea that the people of The Brave New World lived a good life because they are always happy and got what they desired most, while the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare supports the notion that they did not live good lives because their lives were void of many of the core tenets of the theory. I am inclined to believe that the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare is the most accurate description of a good life described in the three aforementioned theories; therefore, I believe that the citizens of The Brave New World did not have good lives.
Although I do not fully believe that any one of the three theories presented are perfectly true, the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare is the one that is the closest to what I choose to believe. Jean Kazez, philosophical author, offers a reasonable list of possible elements to living a good life in her book, The Weight of All Things: Philosophy and the Good Life. Happiness “substantially from things that have value,” autonomy, self-expression, a sense of identity, morality, and growth are the examples of the building blocks of a good life that she provides (Kazez 49-60). It is difficult to make a list of what leads to an objectively good life, so for this paper, the list provided by Kazez will be considered the core tenets of a good life according to the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare. If Kazez’s list of elements is true and leads to a good life, then the people in the novel definitely did not live good lives. The population of The Brave New World did not live good lives because their lives did not contain any of Kazez’s core tenets.
The first principle of the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare that the people of The Brave New World did not contain was happiness, specifically happiness derived substantially from things that have value. The citizens of The Brave New World were obviously very happy, but source of their happiness was anything that could be considered valuable. Their happiness came primarily from their nearly constant use soma. Soma is a side-effect free drug provided to the population by the government that sedates and calms the user. Users of soma are in a constant state of euphoria and it distracts them from recognizing that there could possibly be something fundamentally wrong with their society. Most would agree that happiness as a result of constant drug use is not a thing of value. Their other source of happiness was the false satisfaction from their assigned jobs that they had been conditioned to enjoy. A prime example of a person from the novel that had false satisfaction from their menial job was the liftman. He was an epsilon, the lowest class of their society, and his happiness came from operating the elevator for the higher classes all day and occasionally reaching the roof to bask in the sunlight of the outside world for a few moments (Huxley 58-59). He only takes happiness from his work because he was psychologically manipulated to enjoy his meaningless job that provides a small benefit to society as a whole. Happiness caused from being brainwashed to enjoy something that almost everyone would consider unenjoyable is not happiness from something of valuable.
The second concept of the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare that the people depicted in the novel did not contain was autonomy.

Autonomy is the idea of having control over one’s actions and being able to think freely and act independently (Kazez 52). The people of The Brave New World did not have a choice in their role in society. They were all manufactured in a laboratory to fulfill a certain societal role and conditioned to enjoy that role. The citizens of The Brave New World were basically slaves to their conditioning and were trained to believe that their lives were important and enjoyable. Soma was also a factor in removing autonomy from the masses. It caused people to ignore the problems in their society and be complacent with the life they were assigned during their creation. Once again, the liftman is an ideal example of a citizen in The Brave New World that lacked autonomy. He lacked the ability to think for himself and realize that his job was not actually important nor was it enjoyable. The only reason he believed his job was important and enjoyable was because he was brainwashed to think it was. The epsilon-liftman, along with all the other citizens, were given soma to maintain a feeling of false happiness, never question the status quo, and to never think

freely.
The third principle of the Objectivist Theory of Human Welfare that the people depicted in the novel did not contain was self-expression and a sense of identity. Self-expression is the ability to express your feelings, thoughts, and ideas usually through art. A sense of identity is the ability to be an individual and make decisions for yourself (Kazez 55).