The Abolition of Man

Bought this as part of a course on C S Lewis I am taking online from Hillsdale. He had the ability to take a subject that most people complicate and make plain. Recommend the book and the course

this was one of the texts for a long-term CS Lewis book study at our Church. A very nice read, a quality publication, great price & quick delivery

The book was listed as good condition. It was better than good. Even though it was sold as used it appeared to have never been handled. Perfect condition. It looked new to me.

C.S. Lewis was a wonderful writer, with a great knowledge of Scripture. The is a really good writing for grasping the value and importance of good morals in society.

In a 1943 essay entitled The Poison of Subjectivism, Lewis argued that the notion that people can create their own values presents a serious problem for humanity. He noted that some contemporary politicians found it acceptable to condition society through eugenics, psychological manipulation, state education, and mass propaganda, justified by their self-made values. His solution to this problem would be an objective standard of good by which mens actions could be measured reliably. By that time (1943), Ethical Subjectivism had begun to make inroads into education. Spearheading this movement was a textbook called The Control of Language: A Critical Approach to Reading and Writing, by Alec King and Martin Ketley (1939). In response to its proposed use in the state schools, Lewis expanded The Poison of Subjectivism into a series of three lectures, published as The Abolition of Man (1944). This little book contains not only a biting critique of The Control of Language, but also a condemnation of the larger issues that affected the scientific and philosophical establishment of his time. Lewis claims that King and Ketley attempt to subvert students attitudes by teaching that all statements of value, such as calling a waterfall sublime (c.f. Coleridge, in Dorothy Wordsworth\’s Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland), are merely statements about the speakers feelings, an example of Logical Positivism at work. Lewis notes that this is a philosophical position rather than a grammatical one, however, it contradicts the traditional philosophy of education. Ancient philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle and Augustine, believed that the purpose of education was to train children in ordinate affections. Lewis claims that the attempt to debunk all sentiments is like trying to amputate the heart. Such amputation produces men without chests. As suggested in The Poison of Subjectivism, Lewis believes that all cultures have a common objective set of values. He calls these the Tao. He asserts that modern attempts to do away with traditional morality always proceed by arbitrarily discrediting one part of the Tao and using it as grounds to debunk the others. He finds this attitude unacceptable. The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary colour, he writes, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in (The Abolition of Man, 44). According to Lewis, debunking statements of value will ultimately result in the majority being controlled by a small group who rule by a perfect understanding of psychology, and who in turn are ruled only by their own whims. The controllers will no longer be recognized as human, their patients will be robot-like servants, and the abolition of Man will have been completed. How can a small group of controllers bring about the abolition of Man? Lewis suggests two possible ways: science and magic. Both science and magic represent attempts to subdue nature to mans will. Whereas science has succeeded, magic has failed. Yet both magic and science differ from earlier wisdom: For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men; the solution is a technique (The Abolition of Man, 77). Typical of his ongoing commentary on post-modern attitudes, Lewis uses his philosophical argument to comment on the spreading eugenics movement of his day. The Abolition of Man is not easy reading. Lewis uses a horse tranquilizer of logic, as one critic puts it, to get his point across. A span of two or three pages often separates his pronouns from their referents. In order to clarify the argument, this reviewer once devised a stage play, the dramatis personae of which included Lewis himself as the Narrator; the Audience, the Publisher of The Control of Language and its Authors, and Schoolboys #1 and #2. The Chorus of Philosophers included Orbilius (114 B.C.-14 B.C., Horaces tutor and noted disciplinarian), St. Augustine, Plato, Wordsworth (!), the Hindus, the Chinese, and the Hebrews. Admittedly, Lewis did a much better job of dramatizing his own Abolition of Man. In That Hideous Strength, Wither and Frost are the Green Book Authors, The Head is its Publisher (along with the powers that control him), Mark and Jane are the Schoolboys, and Ransom is Lewiss alter ego. The fictional Lewis is the Narrator. Lewis expands the Chorus to include Charles Williams and Owen Barfield, among others. I recommend this book highly. After finishing, ask yourself whether YOU have already been abolished!

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