Book Review/Summary - The Abolition of Man (C.S. Lewis)

This is a very difficult book to read and as much as I love C.S. Lewis' writings, I probably would not recommend this one. It is not as clearly articulated or thought out as most of his work.  However, there are some good things about it, so if anyone does want to read it, I would recommend this reading guide that was given to me by Dr. Gary Ferngren.

A. Men without Chests

1. What is the thesis of this book?

2. What was the story of Coleridge at the waterfall?

3. What do Gaius and Titius suggest was really the case?

4. What does Lewis think that schoolboys will believe about the story of Coleridge and the waterfall?

5. Lewis calls what Gaius and Titius are doing 'debunking' (10). What does he mean?

6. What is question-begging? (13).

     6a. What is a predicate of value? (20)

7. 'The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments' (13-14). What does Lewis mean?

8. 'Until quite modern times all teachers and even all men believed the universe to be such that certain emotional reactions on our part could be either congruous or incongruous to it-believed, in fact, that objects did not merely receive, but could merit our approval or disapproval, our reverence or our contempt' (14-15). What does he mean?

9. What is the Tao? (18).


10. Is the Tao merely a Chinese concept?

11. What do the authors of The Green Book argue about the values contained in the Tao?

12. How does the old education differ from the new? (22-23).

13. Lewis looks at the human personality as a tripartitite one: intellect, emotions, animal organism or passions. Why does he feel that the emotions are so important?

14. Why does Lewis think that the teaching of Gaius and Titius will produce 'men without chests' (25).

15. 'We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful' (26). What does Lewis mean?

B. The Way

1. Why does Lewis think that 'the practical result of education in the spirit of The Green Book must be the destruction of the society which accepts it' (27)?

2. Why does Lewis maintain that Gaius and Titius hold their views with 'uncritical dogmatism' (29)?

3. What is the philosophy behind the views of Gaius and Titius?

4. 'The Innovator is trying to get a conclusion in the imperative mood out of premises in the indicative mood' (32). What does he mean?

5. What is the difference between reason and practical reason (32)?

6. Why is instinct regarded as a sufficient basis for ethics by Gaius and Titius (33).

7. Why does Lewis think that instinct is no better than reason for serving as a basis for ethics (35)?

8. Is there an instinct to care for posterity or to preserve the species (37)?

9. Where in fact do we find the principles of Gaius and Titius (39)?

10. 'If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all' (40). What does Lewis mean here?

11. 'All the values which he uses in attacking the Tao, and even claims to be substituting for it, are themselves derived from the Tao' (41). 'He is really deriving our duty to posterity from the Tao; our duty to do good to all men is an axiom of Practical Reason, and our duty to do good to our descendants is a clear deduction from it' (42). What does this mean?

12. Why does Lewis say that Natural Law or Traditional Morality is 'not one among a series of possible systems of value'? (See paragraph on p. 44.)

13. How is progress in ethics made?

14. 'An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical Reason is idiocy' (48). Why?

15. What does Lewis think the ultimate purpose of those who try to create a new morality?

C. The Abolition of Man

1. How is man coming to increase his power over nature? (57)

2. What kinds of people does Lewis have in mind? (58).

3. How could they exercise power? (59). Over what? (59).

4. 'The power of Man to make himself what he pleases means...the power of some men to make other men what they please' (59). Explain.

5. Lewis cites several utopians (e.g., Plato, Elyot, Locke) who laid down certain laws for children to be raised. What is the common thread? (60).

6. What are the means that Lewis fears will be used by 'manmoulders'? (60).

7. What is the difference between the standards of older educators and those of newer ones? (60-1).

8. What does Lewis think will be the end product of the new education? (61).

9. Will the conditioners be bad men? (63-4).

10. What will the motive of new educators be? (66).

11. What kind of impulses will the conditioners rely one? (67-8).

12. Isn't it possible that some rulers who have rejected the Tao will rule benevolently? (66).

13. How is the Natural the opposite of the artificial, the civil, the human, the spiritual, and the supernatural? (69).

14. How do men treat nature? (70-1).

15. What is the magician's bargain? (72).

16. What are the two destinies for mankind that Lewis foresees? (73).

17. How were magic and science related in the 16th c? (76-7).

18. What is the difference between instinct and conscience? (79).

19. What is the 'fatal serialism of the modern imagination-the image of infinite unilinear progression which so haunts our minds'? (80)

20. 'Perhaps, in the nature of things, analytical understanding must always be a basilisk [i.e., a legendary lizard that killed merely by its breath or glance] which kills what is sees and only sees by killing' (80). What does Lewis mean? (81).

21. What does Lewis mean by saying that one cannot prove the validity of the Tao by common consent? (83).

22. How many civilizations are there insofar as they contribute to moral principles? (83-4).

23. What is Lewis's purpose in collecting moral principles from many different societies (84 ff)?

24. How would you summarize in a few sentences what Lewis is attempting to demonstrate in The Abolition of Man?