(In this dazzling collection of essays covering a broad ra...)
In this dazzling collection of essays covering a broad range of fields, from Darwinism and the global population explosion to bird watching, distinguished scientist and philosopher Sir Julian Huxley points out new frontiers for scientific research and reaffirms his belief in the intimate connection of the sciences, particularly biology, with the pressing social problems of the present and future. Huxley envisions new horizons for education and divinity within the framework of evolutionary humanism.
(This classic work by Julian Huxley, first published in 19...)
This classic work by Julian Huxley, first published in 1942, captured and synthesized all that was then known about evolutionary biology and gave a name to the Modern Synthesis, the conceptual structure underlying the field for most of the twentieth century.
(UNESCO was created "to contribute to peace and security b...)
UNESCO was created "to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science, and culture." No one spoke with greater authority about the plan for UNESCO than Julian Huxley. As Executive Secretary of its Preparatory Commission and first Director General, he was a major influence the organization's original vision. This facsimile edition provides both the English and French editions of Huxley's visionary policy document, first published in 1946 during preparatory negotiations.
Julian Sorell Huxley was a British evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, educator, author and diplomat. He was the first Director of UNESCO, a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund, secretary of the Zoological Society of London and the first President of the British Humanist Association.
Background
Julian Sorell Huxley was born in London, United Kingdom on June 22, 1887, to Leonard Huxley, who was a biographer, and Julia Arnold Huxley, who founded the Prior’s Field School for Girls. Huxley was the oldest of five children. As a child, Huxley displayed a strong Interest in the natural world, spending many hours fading and watching birds in rural England. It was perhaps his grandfather, Thomas H. Huxley, who had the greatest influence on the boy’s future choice of a career. T.H. Huxley was a well-known biologist and an early defender of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Education
Huxley’s education began in 1900 as a King’s Scholar at Eton College, a secondary school where he gained a love for zoology. Then he attended Balliol College, Oxford University in 1906-1909. He graduated from it with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. He also earned his doctorate there.
In 1912 Huxley left Europe for the United States. He spent the next four years at the Rice Institute in Houston, Texas, advancing through the position of research associate to full professor.
When World War I began, Huxley returned to England and joined the British army, eventually attaining the rank of staff lieutenant in the intelligence unit.
In England, Huxley returned to Oxford, this time to New College, where as a fellow and senior demonstrator in zoology he resumed his scientific research. While at Oxford, Huxley organized and participated in a polar expedition to Spitsbergen, a Norwegian island near the North Pole. He also published Essays of a Biologist.
Huxley left Oxford in 1925 to become a professor of zoology at King’s College, London.
His writing career took a leap in 1926 with the publication of his Essays in Popular Science, which was followed by an invitation from H.G. Wells to work on the book The Science of Life. During this period, Huxley also served as Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution.
In 1929 Huxley visited East Africa to study and provide advice on native education. The trip had an strong impact on him, and he wrote Africa View upon his return, an account of the trip and the region’s prospects for the future.
The following years were very active for Huxley, both as a scientist and a writer. He wrote numerous books including Ants (1929), the four-volume Introduction to Science (1931-35), and Bird-Watching and Bird Behavior (1930). He also published Problems of Relative Growth in 1932, a technical work for specialists in the field which discussed his research into differences in growth rates. The same year, Huxley also completed A Scientist among the Soviets, a book based on his trip to Russia, and a book of verse titled The Captive Shrew.
In 1934 he published the classic Elements of Experimental Embryology with Gavin R. de Beer. The book, which dealt with the nature of embryonic development and the conditions affecting it, gave a significant boost to this expanding field. He prepared an Oscar-winning film in 1934, The Private Life of the Garnets, with R.M. Lockley. The film was based on Huxley’s studies of a huge breeding colony of seabirds called gannets. He served as general supervisor of biological films for Great Britain Instructional Ltd. through 1936.
In 1935 Huxley left King’s College to become secretary of the Zoological Society of London. During the World War II, Huxley joined the Brains Trust program on BBC-radio as a regular panelist who would answer questions from the public. In 1944 Huxley traveled to West Africa to review and make recommendations on higher education. Two years later, he had an opportunity to gain further ground for science when he accepted a two-year post as director-general of the newly created United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Huxley remained busy writing and lecturing after his term ended at UNESCO, and in 1953 he published Evolution in Action, in which he wrote of individual fulfillment. In 1960, at the age of seventy-four, Huxley again turned to Africa, where he acted as adviser for UNESCO, traveling to eastern Africa to review wildlife conservation practices. His writing and lecturing through the decade spanned a wide variety of topics, including courtship behaviors and Sentual selection, evolution, and population control.
Achievements
Julian Huxley was one of the best known scientists of the twentieth century. He had a talent for making technical topics understandable, which he used both to explain and popularize science. Huxley wrote dozens of scientific and popular books, lectured the world over, and participated in regular radio broadcasts. His areas of interest ranged from evolution and bird behavior to religion and human overpopulation. Huxley made several major contributions to the development of science, including making field observation an accepted and respected scientific method. He also did substantial work on evolution and how an organism develops from egg to adult. In addition to academic positions, his career included appointments as secretary of the Zoological Society of London and the first director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization .
Huxley was a proponent of religious naturalism and humanism, denying the existence of a separate supernatural realm and balancing on the verge of atheism.
Politics
Huxley was liberal in views, openly critisized communism and advocated internationalism.
Views
Huxley was a humanist, favoring human interests instead of beliefs in the supernatural. He also was a supporter of neo-darwinism and transhumanism (the term coined by Huxley himself).
Quotations:
"We must therefore concentrate on producing a single equalized environment; and this clearly should be one as favourable as possible to the expression of the genetic qualities that we think desirable. Equally clearly, this should include the following items. A marked raising of the standard of diet for the great majority of the population, until all should be provided both with adequate calories and adequate accessory factors; provision of facilities for healthy exercise and recreation; and upward equalization of educational opportunity. . .. we know from various sources that raising the standard of life among the poorest classes almost invariably results in a lowering of their fertility. In so far, therefore, as differential class-fertility exists, raising the environmental level will reduce any dysgenic effects which it may now have. "
“Religion in the light of science is seen not as a divine revelation, but as a function of human nature. ... It is no more and no less a function of human nature than fighting or falling in love, than law or literature.”
“It is true that one aspect of fulfillment lies in working for others, but another aspect consists in his enjoyments and the free exercise of his capacities...Each time you enjoy a sunset or a symphony, each time you understand an interesting fact or idea, each time you find satisfaction in making something, or in disciplined activity like sport, evolution has brought another of its possibilities to fruition.”
Membership
Huxley was a corresponding member of The Royal Society, the Academie des Sciences in Paris and the Athenaenum Society in London.
Huxley was the president of the British Eugenics Society.
British Eugenics Society
,
United Kingdom
1959 - 1962
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
“Certainly nobody since has made contributions of comparable magnitude to fields so diverse. ... I do not know and cannot imagine any scale of evaluation of scientific merit along which Huxley would not stand out as one of the foremost biologists of the 20th century.” - Peter Medawar, scientist
“In matters concerning the preservation of nature and its ecological balances, the proper management of the resources of the biosphere, the quantitative and qualitative implications of population growth, and the problems of human settlements, the views and the programs that Julian Huxley recommended to UNESCO were a quarter of a century ahead of the ideas of the time.” - Rene Maheu
Interests
Bird watching, travelling
Philosophers & Thinkers
Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, John Dewey
Connections
In 1919, after the war, Huxley married Marie Juliette Baillot, a governess from Switzerland. The couple eventually had two children, Anthony and Francis.
Father:
Leonard Huxley
Mother:
Julia Arnold Huxley
Spouse:
Juliette Baillot
Grandfather:
Thomas Henry Huxley
An ardent supporter of evolutionosm and Darwin's personal friend, also known as "Darwin's bulldog"
