The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99  ·  rating details  ·  7,257 ratings  ·  438 reviews
C. S. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society.
Paperback, 113 pages
Published March 3rd 2009 by HarperOne (first published 1943)
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Mike (the Paladin)
I've meant to read this for a long time. The edition of this I read had both The Great Divorce and The Abolition of Man. The Great Divorce is one of my all time favorite books, of any genre. This book is also excellent, though of a totally different type.

This book will/does require multiple readings if we want to get the most out of it. Also considering when this book was written (1943) then looking at the world today and seeing how things have progressed it could be eye opening and even a bit f...more
Allie
I have so many quotes marked from this book that I might as well just memorize the entire thing. This book alone introduced me to the writings of C.S. Lewis, and I am forever indebted to perceptions. Virtue, as he defines it, is the ability to recognize what is true, good and beautiful. To be able to admit that something has value.

Difficult in our world.

How did we get to the point that recognizing the goodness or beauty in something or someone else makes us feel as though part of our own soul is...more
Tim
When things get bad, I take out the bourbon. When, as occasionally happens, time drags on and things don't get any better, I put the bourbon away and take out C. S. Lewis. His books are short, readable, and filled with an uncanny amount of wisdom. His genius, and the reason he's always been a comfort to me, lies in his ability to convince me that the world as it appears to be, the world that seems so oppressive, is not the whole story.

The lifeline of depression, the fuel from which it draws all...more
Ron
After my second reading:

"Can education influence morality?" asks the back cover blurb. Of course, the musings of an Oxford don seventy years ago could not be relevant to the current state of education in America. Or, could it? For a reader already concerned about the downward spiral of the quality of our education, this book will pour fuel on the fire.

The trends Lewis warned of in the 1940s now permeate our schools--all of them. The result may be men with unimaginable power, but no moral compa...more
Mark Adderley
An important criticism of the educational system in Britain and America; it makes a good companion piece with G. K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man.
Bruce
I read this for a third time due to the inclusion of several excerpts in Ayn Rand’s Marginalia. Rand virulently hated the book and its author, and I’ve always wanted to examine more closely why, since I admire both authors. Her primary disagreement is his coupling of magic and science by claiming they both wanted to achieve power over nature, but by different means. I agree with her that this is an unjustified coupling with its implied vilification of science.

She, on the other hand, seems to for...more
Steve
Wow. He really gave it to 'em good.

Lewis begins with a discussion of education, contrasting what all of history's great thinkers on education (Plato, Locke, Rousseau) thought of its purpose with how it is done today. Now, emotions are trivialized, sentiments (such as patriotism, duty) "explained away," and morals made so abstract as to have nothing to do with life.

Lewis then defends Natural Law, the unanimous and universal idea of absolute morality that was brutally murdered by Kant and Nietzs...more
John
This short book is C.S. Lewis' critique of the British education system of his day. It's presented in three essays: "Men Without Chests," "The Way," and "The Abolition of Man."
I've read this book at least once previously, but I had forgotten how over my head it was. Lewis wrote for at least four audiences: 1) children; 2) the masses; 3) more intellectual readers; 4) students of literature. If I read his works directed toward the third or fourth groups, I have a hard time keeping up. This isn't a...more
Skylar Burris
In the Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis confronts the modern attempt to overthrow the “doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.” As such, it is a book that should be of interest to any adherent of any traditional religion.

Though Lewis is a Christian, he does not take a specifically Christian approach in this book; instead, he uses logical and moral reasoning to attack...more
Steve
While Lewis's "tao" runs as a form of "natural law", his insights on moving with the reality of general revelation, common grace, the common "reality" that we can either fight against, or work within, are very apt and relevant. The reign of scientism and unguided froth in our culture, are properly countered by the idea of "chests" -

"The head rules the belly through the chest - the seat, as Alanus tells us, of magnanimity, of emotions organised by trained habit into stable sentiments. The Chest...more
Rob Kirkham
There is a natural law, there has always been a natural law, and--by George--it won't be long before the worst of Aldous Huxley's brave new world visions come to pass if we forget it! (or so claims Mr. Lewis in The Abolition of Man)

So I am working through some C.S. Lewis because I feel like he's an important cultural figure for the LDS, and this was much better than the book I read just before this (The Great Divorce). This was not a religious work, though it was undoubtedly informed by his reli...more
Aubrey
CS Lewis addresses the British public in this short essay on his feelings about the removal of teaching values in the school system. The use of elegant rhetoric is superb, on par with what I would expect from such a reputable writer.

Lewis argues in favour of a set of Universal values, one that a modern education system 'shies' from teaching. He believes certain responses to the nature of man are more appropriate and just than others, and tries to merit them through examples of multiple religiou...more
Daniel Slonim
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it three times (if I remember right). My brother gave it to me for my seventeenth birthday, and I read it then. It was really good, but I couldn't quite understand the logical flow of his argument. This past summer I had to read it again alongside "That Hideous Strength" (the third book of his space trilogy) in preparation for a retreat with the Hillsdale College honors program. The two books (which are meant to go together) illuminated eac...more
Marilyn
I heartily recommend that you read this book, if you have a child that is being educated. This was not an easy read. I needed to reread, to ponder, to look up the definition of a few words in order to understand what I was reading. The subtitle of the book is “reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools.” Although written in the 1940s, and harshly criticizing the education system then, the essays seem even more relevant to our current...more
Ryan
This book is a clear example that in many ways CS Lewis a great author. He knows how to use rhetoric and clever turn of phrase to make a very interesting book to read. He also has some very good insight in many areas. He's right that expressivism is very deeply wrong and does not accord with our traditional language and conceptions of the world. He's right that the ethical impulse cannot be a matter of pure reason, and is a complicated thing to tie in to the workings of the world. It can't be se...more
Gregory Ambrose
Lewis' reasoning and use of logic is impeccable. While he can be a bit wordy at times, he does his best to convey his thoughts to the reader as clearly as possible. Without going into too much detail, Lewis describes the battle between man and nature. He says that every one of man's advances on nature on not quite victories, but tactical retreats by nature herself. It is only by succumbing to nature we can understand it, and we mistakenly believe that having knowledge of nature lets us dominate...more
Brittany Petruzzi
“Men without chests” is an odd phrase, to be sure, but when you stop a moment to ponder it, its meaning becomes clear. Men without chests are men without magnanimity. They are heartless, soulless men who cannot even ennoble the smallest of things. They cannot do this because nobility is not only doing what is necessary, but doing what is good. But as Lewis tells us in The Abolition of Man, with a subjectivist worldview, neither what is right nor what is good have any bearing on what is done.

Mark...more
Stuart Yoder
This book had been on my 'to read' list for a number of years, but hearing a podcast by Fr. Hopko on the book is what moved it to the top of my list. Here is a link to the podcast:
http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopk...

The book consists of 3 short essays and is about the erosion of absolute truth in our modern world.

It starts with a critique of the textbook "The Control of Language: A Critical Approach to Reading and Writing" (1939) by Alex King and Martin Ketley, who say that all judgments are...more
Carol Apple
The message of The Abolition of Man is deep, foundational, and arguably desperately important, but you might have to read it a couple of times to grasp the full implications. At least, I did. It’s not that the book is at all dry or boring. And it is short. Whether you get the message fully on your first reading or not, Lewis writing is always flowing, cogent, warm, entertaining, and full of clear examples. The subject is no less than what it means to be a human being and how our choices and beli...more
Nicole
Jul 29, 2011 Nicole added it
It should be stated that I do find Lewis to be extraordinarily talented and an intellectual. However, I am not won over by his argument for universal morality. With Mere Christianity, I find that there are jumps in his arguments between the metaphors and the ideas. There is something missing in the linkage between ideas.
I also found the first part to be a very extended metaphor. I might be reading too much into this. If it is alone a critique on education, I understand the parts of the critique...more
Heidi
Jul 14, 2011 Heidi rated it 2 of 5 stars
Recommended to Heidi by: Paradigm High School
Shelves: teaching-school
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Zach Vaughn
It’s been several years since I read anything by Lewis (last thing was "The Screwtape Letters," which were highly enjoyable), so I was pleased reading his discussion of the need for universally objective values. These are questions I have not considered for some time, at least since I read Rand’s "Virtue of Selfishness," and not seriously considered in many years as my thought has become more focused on the practical and pragmatic ends of my job in politics.

At one time, my attitude certainly ref...more
Alex
This book is hard to understand but I think I got it. Barely. At least I understood the general point if not some of the finer ones.

Basically, in this book Lewis explains why he thinks the tract man is progressing on will eventually abolish man. He does not mean that literally. What he means is that what makes a man a man (essentially the ability to have emotions, sentiments, and value judgments) will be lost if man continues to believe that everything can be reduced to naturalism.

What I think...more
Jay Miklovic
I really enjoyed reading this book, it engaged my mind in ways my mind has never been engaged. I imagine that this book is more than worthy of five stars, and maybe some day I will come back to it again and give it the fifth star. I must say that there were a number of times when I absolutely struggled to understand what Lewis was getting at, especially in the first 20 pages or so. However as I read on things seemed to come together more and more.

I loved the essay "men without chests" which affi...more
David Sarkies
Mar 15, 2013 David Sarkies rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Teachers and Students of English
Recommended to David by: Tim Earl
Shelves: philosophy
This may be a small book but it is a pretty intense book. It is one of those small books that can actually take a lot of energy out of you by reading it. Fortunately this is the third time I have read it so it is nowhere near as bad as it was the first time. However I think that some of the things that C.S. Lewis has to say are very important.
Anyway, the term Abolition of Man refers to his essay (which is actually a collection of three lectures) about the descent of man from the pinnacle of cr...more
Joshua
Jul 22, 2012 Joshua added it Recommends it for: Anyone
I've heard a lot about this book and finally got around to reading it.

I enjoyed the book and it was a quick read. Thoughts I'm left with: Do we laugh at honor today? Duty? Do we take serious the self-disciplined person or do we pity them? Do we praise the person who indulges in what makes them happy? Do we say good job when a man's instincts are discovered and fulfilled -do we congratulate each other when we come to terms with our own "instincts"? Do we celebrate self-gratification or self-disci...more
Guanhui
There are books about education that one glances over and there are books about education that keep you riveted. There are moralists who bore you and there are moralists who disturb you with their keen, penetrating insights into the convoluted arguments that saturate academia.

There is no mistaking that should the thesis of this book be taken seriously, the stakes in education would find themselves much dearer. For one, we would not be dismissive of the seeming buzz-word: values.

As a Christian,...more
Clare Cannon
Aug 21, 2011 Clare Cannon rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Young Adults & Adults
How could I have done an Arts degree without reading this book?! Lewis was a genius, and everything he writes here feels indescribably relevant to the present time. I had goosebumps while reading it.

So many voices call for the abandonment of all value systems except their own, wishing somehow to 'free' society from the laws that have governed it only to impose their own, more arbitrary code.

Every humanities student (not to mention teacher) must read it.
Jennifer Freitag
This is a good book for the thinking Christian. Moved by the progressive modern determination to remove ourselves from ideals and to make absolute values irrelevant, Lewis sets out to show that no one can survive the destruction of Truth, and that the long human struggle to subject the world, if taken too far, leads to the inevitable end of man’s own abolition. While deeply immersed in Lewis’ philosophical background, the style itself is logical and easy to follow. It will undoubtedly take the r...more
Steve Johnson
CS Lewis was such an incredible man and thinker. Through him God blessed this world for generations.

The Abolition of Man is one of the more intellectual pieces of Lewis' writing that I've read. I'm not sure that I fully learned everything that he was trying to teach, but now nearly a week after finishing, I continue to think about this book.

My one take-away is that modernism (he doesn't call it that) has degraded the value of humans to the point of their utility. This is a tragedy as the real...more
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C.S. Lewy 2 19 Nov 30, 2011 07:35am  
The Abolition of Man  (Paperback)
The Abolition of Man (Paperback)
The Abolition of Man (Paperback)
The Abolition of Man (Kindle Edition)
The Abolition Of Man, Or Reflections On Education With Special Reference To The Teaching Of English In The Upper Forms Of School

1069006
CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more th...more
More about C.S. Lewis...
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia #1-7) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3) The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) The Screwtape Letters

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“The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.” 14 people liked it
“we (modern society) 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.” 13 people liked it
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