Robert A. Lotzer

05/16/97

91 pages

THE ABOLITION OF MAN

1.  What is the main teaching (or thesis) - or what are the main teachings (or theses) - of the work?

In The Abolition of Man (1943), Lewis takes a critical look at a modern educational theory, primarily relativism and naturalism.  This modern theory is illustrated by observing the writing of two men Lewis calls Gaius and Titius in their book, he refers to as, The Green Book.  Lewis writes as a prophet showing what will ultimately happen to our children if this current educational process continues.  His critique falls first on the second chapter of the book where the authors comment on a story by Coleridge about two tourists observing a waterfall.  One tourist called it "sublime" while the other called it "pretty".  When the tourist said that the waterfall was sublime, he was not making a statement about the waterfall but about his own personal feelings, says Gaius and Titius.  Now the first critique Lewis makes is their use of language.  If this use was consistently followed, it would lead to all sorts of absurdities.  Only what is meant on the page is what the reader "feels" like it means.  The schoolboy will then assume that the statements only show the emotions of the speaker and that the statements then are not really important at all.  Lewis primary criticism is the authors subtle denial of objective reality.  The authors only had room for beauty that was subject.  They did not acknowledge an objective standard of beauty by which the adjectives, "sublime" and "pretty" must measure up to.  In so doing, the authors lead the schoolboys away from thinking their are absolutes in the world.  This is primarily dangerous in the area of ethics. 

Lewis speaks of the necessity of absolutes which he calls "the Tao."  This is the sum of the moral law or objective values.  This is "the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false . . . (29).  He then breaks man up into three parts:  (1) the head or the seat of Reason; (2) the chest or the Magnanimity, the "emotions organized by trained habit into stable sentiments" (34); (3) the belly or seat of appetites.  The reason recognizes and understands the Tao.  It is not just what the person feels, but what actually measures up to the Tao which the reason grasps.  The chest or heart is where the absolutes are nurtured.  The head comprehends the Tao and the heart attempts to follow it.  The problem with the modern educational theory is that it creates men "without chests."  Without the chest, the "intellect is powerless against the animal organism" (33-4).  Education creates men to be this way and then murmurs that society is so evil.  Lewis says "we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible . . . .  In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function.  We make men without chest and expect of them virtue and enterprise.  We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.  We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful" (35).  In sum, "it may even be said that it is by this middle element that man is man:  for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal" (34). 

Lewis believes that "the way" out of this problem is subscribe to the Tao.  We must depend upon this sole source of values because the "human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary colour, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in" (56-7).  Lewis warns in the end that if we do not turn this trend around, then the very nature we are trying to conquer will in the end conquer us.    Lewis says, "Each new power won by man is a power over man as well" (71).  In the end, "the last man, far from being the heirs of power, will be of all men most subject to the dead hand of the great planners and conditioners and will themselves exercise least power upon the future" (71).  When man abandons the Tao he also includes abandoning freedom and dignity of humanity.  Then human become merely a part of the rest of nature.  This nature is currently being conquered by the means of science, called technology.  However, without the Tao, technology becomes a force without a chest.  In the end the technology takes over humanity and the power of it all falls into the socially elite or conditioners.  These conditioners eventually control society, or the conditioned.  They create the value system that is imposed upon the conditioned based purely on the whims of the conditioners.  This is the apex of the present educational theories.    

2.  How does Lewis illustrate his teaching?  Or, how does he support or defend his thesis?

Lewis illustrates his main thesis by referring to first, to Gaius and Titius and The Green Book.  He also describes the type of people that works such as this produces as men without chests.  He compares the conditioners to the Nazi rulers in Germany.  I guess most of this question was answered in question number one. 

3.  Indicate one or two ways in which this work addresses a need (theological, philosophical, or ethical) in today's church; in today's secular society?

First, in the church we need to instruct our covenant children in the Word of God.  It is an absolute necessity that in the future there be lights burning bright.  These children will in turn affect society by their immovable faith and assurance.

Second, we need to instruct our young people apologetically.  We need to teach them what relativism is and give them the tools to defend ethics based on absolutes.  We need to teach them about postmodernism.  We need to give them tools to prepare them before they enter into the college scene.

Third, we need to be interacting with secular society.  We need to be writing and speaking with those who hold such beliefs.  We need to stop focusing solely upon the church or upon "confrontational evangelism" and include simple interaction with people who are ignorant or opposed to the truth. We need to follow Lewis in producing works that will address this need creatively.