Abolition Of Man Research Articles

Three Rival Versions of Education: An Update to The Abolition of Man

In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis draws attention to a particular English textbook, exposes the philosophy behind it, warns of the consequences for moral and political life, and reminds us of an alternative. This article updates The Abolition of Man. Following Lewis’s pattern, I begin by drawing attention to the content and pedagogy of an unidentified Christian school English program. Using Alasdair MacIntyre’s framework, I argue that the philosophy behind it can be traced to the contemporary encyclopaedic projects of Rawls and Kohlberg and the genealogical projects of Foucault and Gee, which have produced a dichotomy between justice and virtue and a problem of authority with significant consequences. The two projects converge making each internally inconsistent. Tradition provides a way out, but an encounter with these other projects should lead tradition to find its own language and resources for progress in areas like diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; learning disabilities; and the classical canon.

Lewis and Liberty: Reflections on a Pandemic

In The Abolition of Man and “Is Progress Possible?,” C. S. Lewis reflects on the nature of the human person, science, liberty, and the role of government. These topics were also debated during the 2019–2022 coronavirus pandemic. This article reflects upon the lessons we might learn from Lewis in respect of those aspects of the pandemic, especially as found in the United Kingdom and United States. In considering Lewis’s approach we find a depth of wisdom in balancing liberty, scientific expertise, social and economic concerns, and the role of government.

The Abolition of Man and the Dismal Science

This article examines C. S. Lewis’s Abolition of Man from the perspective of economics. One of the principles of economics first taught by Adam Smith was that of specialization and division of labor. The overlap between the discipline of economics and the teaching of Lewis can be described as an application of this principle. Economics is a scholarly discipline that studies how choices are made. The division of labor that Lewis offers is the recognition that freedom of choice is not an end in itself.

The Abolition of Democracy

Democracy seems shaky in the contemporary United States. In recent polls, an overwhelming 70 percent of Americans say that democracy is under threat, in crisis, and at risk of failing. Conventional wisdom tends to lay the blame for those findings—and the underlying fragility of democracy in America—at the feet of discrete political actors or at growing “polarization” in the electorate. But in The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis gives us reason to look deeper—at the difficult relationship, in practice, between modern democracy and enduring values. This essay shows how Lewis helps us better understand the crisis of democracy in America (including the crisis of faith in democracy in America) today.

A Place to Stand against the Abolition of Man

A Place to Stand against the Abolition of Man

Natural Philosophy: On Retrieving a Lost Disciplinary Imaginary

Natural Philosophy: On Retrieving a Lost Disciplinary Imaginary

IS CHRISTIANITY STILL UP-TO-DATE? AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

In a world dominated by newness, the question we start with is inevitable: is Christianity still relevant today? For believers and religious affiliates, the question is superfluous; but it falls to them to deliver valid answers, even to such rhetoric. Where will they build their argument from? From a God whom the opposing camp has long since disqualified? We believe that one of the common, valid premises for effective dialogue and constructive criticism is the human being itself. Man is the immediate reality, impossible to neglect, which is the concern of both believers (a being destined to fulfilment through deification, legitimised as a person by God) and non-believers (a being legitimised by itself). The evolution of this being becomes the control lamp of ontological truth and implicitly contains the answer to our question. We have analysed, comparatively, two vectors, two potential directions relevant to human evolution. The first is described in two landmark works of literature, The Abolition of Man and The Brave New World, and the other through a summary of the orthodox Christian anthropological paradigm. In the case study I have developed, I have come to the conclusion that in the manner in which man undergoes a rationalistic immanent reductionism, becoming merely nature, he becomes himself a piece of nature and seals his demise through dehumanization, becoming himself an idol without consciousness. At the same time, if he empowers his inner, spiritual universe and tries to establish himself in the mystery of the personal God by relating correctly to nature, i.e. to the nature within him, he will find himself in the position of the saint who has risen above nature by the spiritual discipline of instincts. Here true reason and full freedom are revealed. So, despite hostile social pressure, Christianity is not only relevant today but, along the lines of this argument, necessary.

Review of Science Fiction and the Abolition of Man: Finding C. S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Film and Television

A review of Mark J. Boone and Kevin C. Neece, eds., Science Fiction and the Abolition of Man: Finding C. S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Film and Television (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2017). vii + 346 pages. $41.00. ISBN 9781498232340.

"Raised by Implication": C.S. Lewis's Studies in Words and Historical and Moral Judgment

C. S. Lewis wrote Studies in Words "to help students understand the lexical and historical meaning of certain common words, in effect, to assist “a more accurate reading of old books.” His choice of words, with their classical, European, and British contexts, is reflective of Lewis’s vocation as a professor of English literature. However, the chosen words also contain moral meanings. While the primary purpose of Studies is to train the reader in making conceptual distinctions, it also provides a kind of training in interpretive and historical responsibility that runs parallel with Lewis’s view of the natural moral law. The twin concerns of historical accuracy and ethical judgment are always beneath the surface in Studies in Words, for Lewis is modeling for his readers an understanding of public meaning and lexical change, along with a psychology of agency based on beliefs and intentions that is worth engaging, even accepting or rejecting.5 That is, he is practicing what he recommends in The Abolition of Man—a formative education with commitment.

That Hideous Strength's Omnicompetent State

That Hideous Strength is clearly connected to C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, where he writes of the conditioners who seek to create a new society via the rejection of universal moral law and the rise of an educational and scientific elite. For Lewis, That Hideous Strength was a way to communicate the concerns expressed in The Abolition of Man in a story format that would appeal to those who might not read a treatise on the subject.
 This paper examines his concerns about a totalitarian threat as expressed in The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength, and then shows how those concerns appeared in his post-war correspondence. Were his fears and concerns valid? How, in particular, did he communicate his concerns to his many correspondents? How predictive did he consider That Hideous Strength to be as he experienced the reality of post-WWII Britain?

C. S. LEWIS E UMA CRÍTICA À EDUCAÇÃO PROMOVEDORA DE ABOLIÇÃO DO HOMEM

This article aimed to highlight the reasons for a criticism by the Irish writer Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) towards the direction of youth education in Europe, notably in the United Kingdom, in the 20th century. His criticism gained as his main thesis what the writer called “the abolition of man”, resulting from an educational system that promotes an alleged rationality that prevented the development of an intermediate element in the human being between the cerebral and the visceral. For Lewis, that intermediate element is the emotions that, well trained, endow the intellect with capacities to deal with the mere animal organism. For this purpose, our starting point in this work was outlined by the cut of a broader work, which consists of an exhibition that, in general, highlights some guidelines that point to the composition of a Philosophy of Education in C. S. Lewis. We seek to collect, initially, the elements of a philosophical anthropology, collected directly, by an interpretative procedure, from the vast work of the author in question, particularly The Abolition of Man, Pure and Simple Christianity, The Weight of Glory, Christian Reflections, The Four Loves, Letters from a Devil to His Apprentice, God in the Dock, Ethics to Live Better, Christian Reflections, among others. In addition to these texts used as a direct source, we also take the work of Gabrielle Greggersen, entitled The Philosophical Anthropology of C. S. Lewis, where the author makes an interpretive incursion into the author’s fictional literature texts, as well as the works biographies of Alister MacGrath, Conversing with Lewis and The Life of C. S. Lewis, in which the Irish philosopher’s life and work are richly detailed. Keywords: C. S. Lewis. Philosophy. Education. Philosophy of education. Philosophical anthropology

After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man by Michael Ward (review)

After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man by Michael Ward (review)

A Polanyian Rescue of The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man, though short in length and casual in tone, is among the most important books of the twentieth century. The reason it possesses such significance is that it reveals through penetrating analysis the contemporary sceptical assault on the very possibility of rational morality and, indeed, on the very meaning of human life. In meeting and overcoming this assault, Lewis embraces the concept of objective value. But this concept is itself under attack in modernity, most notably in Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. There is, however, an effective response to this withering onslaught. It is found in Michael Polanyi's ‘fiduciary’ philosophy. This study shows how Polanyi's account of justification inoculates Lewis' objective value against Nietzsche's virulent attack, thereby preserving the defence of meaning and morality that constitutes the essential contribution of The Abolition of Man.

The Discarded Image and the Debunked Tao: Objective Value in C.S. Lewis’ Medieval Model and His Critique of Modernity †

This paper considers C.S. Lewis’ “doctrine of objective value” in two of his major works, The Abolition of Man and The Discarded Image. Lewis uses the Chinese name Tao, albeit with an incomplete understanding of its origins, for the objective worldview. The paper argues that Tao, as an explicit theme of The Abolition of Man, is also a determining undercurrent in The Discarded Image. In the former work, Tao is what Lewis wants to defend and restore against twentieth-century secular ideologies, which Lewis condemns as infected with “the poison of subjectivism”. In the latter work, where Lewis presents one of the best accounts of the European medieval model of the Universe, objective value (the Tao in Lewis’ argument) underlies both how the model has been shaped, and how Lewis, as a medievalist, accounts for and draws upon it as an intellectual and spiritual resource. The purpose of this parallel study is to show that Lewis’ explication of the Tao in The Abolition of Man, which is a “built-in”, implicit belief in The Discarded Image, provides a critique of tendencies towards the subjectivism prevalent in Lewis’ lifetime. These tendencies can be traced into the moral relativism, pluralism and reductionism of the twenty-first century, giving Lewis’ work the status of twentieth-century prophecy.

Mark J. Boone and Kevin C. Neece (eds), Science Fiction and the Abolition of Man: Finding C.S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Film and Television

Mark J. Boone and Kevin C. Neece (eds), <i>Science Fiction and the Abolition of Man: Finding C.S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Film and Television</i>

Contemporary Perspectives on C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man: History, Philosophy, Education, and Science

Contemporary Perspectives on C.S. Lewis’ <i>The Abolition of Man</i>: History, Philosophy, Education, and Science

Mark J. Boone and Kevin C. Neece, eds., Science Fiction and The Abolition of Man: Finding C. S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Film and Television

Mark J. Boone and Kevin C. Neece, eds., <i>Science Fiction and The Abolition of Man: Finding C. S. Lewis in Sci-Fi Film and Television</i>

Cultural tourism as pilgrimage

AbstractIn this recent address to a UNESCO doctoral summer school in northern Italy, the author argues that all cultural tourism has underlying and implicit philosophical-religious dimensions that are particularly important in the era of “late capitalism,” in which “the idiosyncratic has triumphed over the normative” and there is a deeply nihilistic drive and trajectory to the ascendant culture. After drawing on the sociologist Daniel Bell’s analysis of “the cultural contradictions of capitalism,” the author argues that there is an irreducible sacred dimension to the human person (res sacra homo) and his or her life always has the character of a pilgrimage, cognitively comprised of a quest for significance beyond the separate meanings of the normal occupational and utilitarian life. Master-works of urbanism, architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and literature offset the nihilistic dynamic of “late modernity,” and the author draws particular attention to literary works of cross-cultural understanding such as the trilogy of historical novels about India by L. H. Myers, The Root and the Flower and the novels of the great modern Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. As works of fundamental importance for orienting his analysis he adduces C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Logos I - Philosophy and the Nature of Morality: The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’ objective stance on ethics is argued to be superior to the moral sentimentalism of David Hume, because if there is not agreement on what constitutes moral action, then there is no basis for argument over the existence of moral law.

The Abolition of Mars: The Platonic Soul in C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet

On the surface, Out of the Silent Planet appears to be C.S. Lewis' first halting exploration into the realm of ‘the space-and-time story’. However, there is a deeper and more significant experiment involved; Out of the Silent Planet is Lewis' first attempt at a philosophical narrative exploring a specific theme, a technique which he will later incorporate into his most famous works, the Chronicles of Narnia. In Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis is examining the tri-part Platonic soul as he presents it in The Abolition of Man, using the three species of Mars as representations of each aspect. This article demonstrates how these three parts are represented: the seroni being the Head, the pfifltriggi being the Belly, and the hrossa being the Chest, as well as the other connections between The Abolition of Man and the first book in the Ransom Trilogy.