The Philosophies of Brave New World and Anthem The books Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and Anthem by Ayn Rand are both valuable 20th century contributions to literature. Both books explore the presence of natural law in man and offer a warning about what could happen when man's sense of good and evil is taken away. In this essay, I hope to show how these seemingly unrelated novels both expose a single, very profound, idea. Before I launch into the implications of these two novels, I think a summary of the general human experience in each of the two societies is helpful. necessary. Brave New World illustrates a society in which science has been elevated to a divine position. In this novel, human thoughts and actions are controlled by conditioning, which in turn is controlled by a select few members of the ruling caste. Depending on the caste they were raised for, individuals in Brave New World are developed differently. All humans are created in a laboratory, and upper caste individuals are allowed to develop relatively free from any mutations. Lower caste citizens, however, are created in mass quantities and are conditioned even as fetuses to enjoy hard work. After birth, a process called decanting in the novel, children are raised in foster homes. From childhood to adolescence, children are conditioned by their society's worldview: "Everyone belongs to everyone else." They are carefully conditioned to accept and reject things based on the best interests of society. Although the citizens of this world believe they have complete freedom, in reality they are unable to behave differently than they have been conditioned to do. They date, but monogamy is out of the question. Growing up... middle of paper... took them to an involuntary extreme. These books are both invaluable for the study of natural law, human psychology, government, and many other fields. They strongly reinforce the theory proposed by C.S. Lewis in his book, Abolition of Man, in which he states that without the Tao as a standard, men will inevitably create their own standard, which in Brave New World and Anthem appears to be the good of society.Works cite: Corliss, Richard, "Who's Feeling No Pain?" in Time Magazine, April 28, 2001. Available http://www.time/magazine/printout/0,8816,102079,00.html.Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1998. McMichael, Charles T., “Aldous Huxley's Island: The Final Vision,” in Studies in the Literary Imagination. vol. 1, no. 2, April 1968. Rand, Ayn Anthem New York: Signet 1961.