The Perennial Philosophy Author:Aldous Huxley Philosophia perennis -- as Liebniz called it -- has had a place in the writings and traditions of every one of the higher religions. First written down more than twenty-five centuries ago, this inexhaustible theme has been treated again and again from the standpoint of every major religion and in all the principal languages of Europe and Asia. I... more »n this book, Aldous Huxley, novelist, thinker, and author, has brought together a number of selections from these writings. He has chosen them not only for their significance, and because they effectively illustrate some point in the general system of Perennial Philosophy, but also for their intrinsic beauty and value as literature. By "embedding" them, as it were, in his own writing, he has produced a coherent synthesis which can serve as the source of a faith for modern man.
Mr. Huxley sets out to show what happens to consciousness and character, to will and feeling and knowledge, when men seek to organize their lives in terms of the spiritual goals set out by saints and theologians. Only in the light of these revelations, he argues, can we fully and clearly understand what in fact we are, both as bewildered and morally squalid individuals, and as the members, creators, and victims of national societies, whose behavior is to a great extent insane or criminal.« less