Huxley's Systematic Reasoning

Aldous Huxley claims, “Systematic reasoning is something we could not, as a species or as individuals, possibly do without. But neither, if we are to remain sane, can we possibly do without direct perception.” Huxley makes a very good point in saying, it is key to our society to have unsystematic reasoning, as much as it is key to have systematic reasoning. Direct perception cannot be overlooked for it was the individuals that had this thought process that brought upon some of the key factors that make up our language and systems today. A balance of both systematic and unsystematic reasoning is the groundwork for our society, and without balance we may “become the victims as well as the beneficiaries of these systems”.

We become the victims of these systems when we become ignorant of our surroundings. Without unsystematic reasoning new theories and ideas would not be created, however too much in society could lead to chaos. Huxley states that non-verbal humanities are often ignored. We as humans cannot

become so blinded by rules and systems, that we forget to make our own opinion and discoveries. It was people with direct perception that brought upon our systems today. Everything we know in science truly comes down to be a theory, theories were tested and made into experiments, next conclusions, finally laws. Why do we believe everything we read in textbooks? We believe what we read because that is what we are taught to do, it is crammed into our head that those beliefs and ideas are the correct answer. Sir Isaac Newton didn’t discover the idea of gravity with systematic reasoning, Isaac Newton discovered gravity by using direct perception.
Systematic reasoning is observing something as a whole, while unsystematic reasoning is directly looking at the things that make up a whole. Huxley stresses that “we must learn how to handle words effectively; but at the same time we must preserve and, if necessary, intensify our ability to look at the world directly and not through that half opaque medium of concepts”. I believe this is important because we must learn how to experience and identify things for ourselves. In doing so, this prevents us as humans, from becoming the victims of these systems. I believe Huxley chooses the word victim in the following statement “become the victims as well as the beneficiaries” because it reveals the true threat in what could become if our human race allows language and systems to be a perpetrator.
Although it is necessary to have direct perception, unsystematic reasoning, and an unorganized system, is also important to ensure structure.

Structure is important for a society to function, because it is due to these structures that huxley says “we have raised ourselves above the brutes”. Rules and systems set in place ensure safety. Without systems, and rules, people act out, and society cannot function. This has been proven in many studies. However, many times with systems and power, follows abuse of power. If an abused system is in place, sometimes it seems as if humans can no longer be their own individual, instead they are dehumanized and made into bodies that are practically like empty capsules, full of similar thought, lacking creativity and a sense of being unique. I believe this is why Huxley stresses that we cannot look at the world indirectly, instead we must prevent behaviors that create a generic label for human beings, lacking

personalities.
Huxley makes very agreeable claims especially the one that states “We can never dispense with language and other symbol systems; for it is by means of them, and only by their means, that we have raised ourselves above the brutes”. No matter how uniform leaders may try to make society, humans still make mistakes, sometimes the mistakes that are more helpful than any experiment that highly educated people can perform. Studying mistakes throughout history allows society to learn from mistakes in hopes to prevent the similar mistakes from reoccurring. Society requires a balance between the direct and indirect. Our human race works everyday to try to find that balance while at the same time, are creating systems they may be unaware they are creating.