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Dec 16, 2010

Allie rated it:

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 More...

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Dec 16, 2010

Tim rated it:

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 More...

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Jan 31, 2011

Ron rated it:

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 unim More...

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Dec 16, 2010

Paul rated it:

A series of three lectures from Lewis-probably his best criticims of one of his favorite antagonists - the naturalists (believers in an unemotional intellectualism and a deterministic science). Lewis, although a rationalist, believes strongly that "emotional states can be in harmony with reason" and that "the heart never takes the place of the head, but it can, and should obey it. When we deny the -validity of emotions and value-judgments, claims Lewis, we create "men without More...

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Dec 16, 2010

Mark rated it:

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.

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Dec 16, 2010

Bruce rated it:

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 More...

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Dec 16, 2010

Steve rated it:

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 br More...

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Dec 16, 2010

John rated it:

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 More...

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Dec 16, 2010

Skylar rated it:

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 reasonin More...

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Dec 16, 2010

Steve rated it:

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 org More...

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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...

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Jul 14, 2011

Heidi rated it:

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Aug 23, 2011

Alex rated it:

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.
More...

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Jul 12, 2011

Jay rated it:

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 More...

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Aug 23, 2011

Clare rated it:

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.

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Jan 24, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

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...

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May 04, 2011

Steve rated it:

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 More...

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May 30, 2011

Jacob rated it:

C.S. Lewis is a writer that I had at one point dismissed as overwrought within Christianity (curse you #4 enneagram). Sure, "Mere Christianity" and "Screwtape Letters" are classics, but I felt that these were often over-quoted and too heavily relied upon by Christians today. The "Chronicles of Narnia" movies also did not help this view. This article gives a good summary of my view: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-harpe...

Forgive me for posting the Puff More...

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Jan 18, 2011

David rated it:

I wanted to read this book after hearing Dr. Louis Markos lectures on the Life and Writings of C.S. Lewis from Great Courses. I was surprised by the book's subtitle: "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools." Books on teaching English is not my usual genre!

This a great book, and highly recommended reading. It is a short read, but very deep and it might keep you running for the dictionary. In the book, Lewis More...

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Jun 05, 2011

Kelli rated it:

I absolutely hate that I am giving this 2 stars. Its just me..its only 2 stars for myself..its still a brilliant work. I love CS Lewis. I love his work to bits (most of it, after reading this book), and his quotes and thought patterns are astounding. Especially his reasoning skills. He is to be read often.

BUT 'The Abolition of Man' I could not follow to save my life. While I did find some good quotes here and there, my understanding of where CS Lewis was taking each chapter mus More...

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Jan 15, 2011

Adam rated it:

Lewis explains the Men without Chests...being those who live by their brain and not their heart. They continually rationalize judgements and decisions based on what is popularly accepted as opposed to what is just and morally right.

What sinks in the best for me is the last chapter where Lewis describes acceptance of science over religion as a basis of your virtues. Although he doesnt specifically say this I think it is what he's after...More than once he cites the then recent inv More...

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Aug 07, 2011

Kyle rated it:

I read this, because a religious friend asked me to. Frankly, its a lot of intellectual blathering that could be summed up much more concisely, and effectively. Lewis tries to argue that human nature will change for the worse the more rationalist we become. I believe that on closer examination, what worries him isn't that human nature might change in the future. It's that human nature may not have been what he wanted it to be in his present. Lewis is an intelligent man, but he makes the same mis More...

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Sep 24, 2011

Jean rated it:

In "The Abolition of Man", C.S. Lewis presents a solid case of the dangers of moral relativism. True 50 years ago when Lewis wrote it and visionary as it applies more than ever today. I highly recommend this book. If you choose to read it, ask yourself if you recognize any ways, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle, in which you or your children are being conditioned to think through our education system, scientific "advancements", the media, government, etc. The " More...

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Jun 10, 2011

Brent rated it:

Historically, I have really enjoyed Lewis' writings. He is accessible, expert at applying similes & metaphors, has an acute and profound understanding of spiritual matters (particularly where it concerns Christianity), and has a writing style that keeps things lively.
This book, for me, did not apply many of the aforementioned attributes. I felt like his target audience were Ph.D.s in English pedagogy, with penchants for religious philosophy. The first half of the book just came across More...

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Jul 10, 2011

Phil rated it:

I have no idea what this book was really all about, or why it was written. Lewis began by critiquing a children's literature book (I think) and then he got into something about the future of the human in race in which humanity was the last force to be conquered and something about how eugenics and science would not increase humanity but only give current humans control over future humans but that control would be only derived from the past or something. Really, I could make no sense of this book More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Sally rated it:

The lack of a fifth star is due more to my small brain than the book itself. Lewis is amazingly prophetic as he considers the problems of the world several decades ago. I was struck by the title essay's thought that by attempting to conquer Nature, we are actually allowing it to conquer us: in the absence of an external standard of right and truth, those in power will fall back on our wants as the directive. Lewis also warned about too far a remove from the nature of things. A window is transpar More...

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Jan 10, 2011

RE rated it:

"The task of the modern educator," Lewis writes in this book on Education and values, "is not to cut down forests, but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head."

You can build an entire curricular philosophy More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Steve rated it:

This book begins as a critique of a contemporary English book and moves into a defense of objective value and natural law. The value of things or actions is not just subjective they have an objective value based on a set of objective values that have been shared, with subtle difference, by a variety of cultures (what he dubs the Tao). The Tao is that element that connects the intellectual man with the instinctual man and must be taught to our children so that they don't lose their humanity. A More...

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Dec 16, 2010

John rated it:

A short, fascinating essay on the modern view of moral value. I highly recommend reading it if only for the last chapter, which is a scarily prophetic examination of modern man's "conquest of nature".

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Nov 26, 2011

Greg rated it:

I will always enjoy the topic of "men without chests". I read this work in one sitting. One sitting and plenty of rereading. Though the topics expressed were ones I felt I could Identify with, and enjoyed the fact that I identified with those expressed ideas. I seemed to reacted with a defensive sentiment pretty often. I guess, I just felt that he exaggerated the ideas he expressed, his examples which were used to support those ideas, and the consequences of the ideas expressed. I felt More...

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