Abolition of Man

In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis discusses many topics regarding morality and what he considers “The Abolition of Man”. He argues, starting from an schoolbook he recently read, that humanity is progressing towards The Abolition of Man. He argues that if we keep on this path, “Man” will no longer exist.

He begins by critiquing an English book that argues that statements about an object’s beauty are always subjective. The English book argues that statements like that only express what a person is feeling towards an object, and nothing about the object itself. Lewis takes issue with this and argues that objects have beauty in and of themselves. In this section of the book, he discusses objectivity vs. subjectivity. It sets us up for the rest of the book where he discusses morals.

Next, he argues that without the ability to say whether something “merits” our praise or any other feeling, such as saying that a waterfall is “sublime” or saying that an action is “contemptible”, we lose any ground for our morals. Instead of saying a fact of reality, the English book says that we are only saying how we feel about something. Furthermore, that is all anyone can say if they only accept the material world. He claims that without a baseline, something outside of ourselves or the material world (which he calls the Tao throughout the book), there is no way to say one thing is bad and another is good. He calls people who fall into this idea “men without chests” since the chest is the connection between the head and the heart. The head and heart are connected by morals or the Tao.

In the second section, called “The Way” he addresses many arguments against the need for the Tao. He shows that there is no way around it: you cannot have values without the Tao. Anyone who claims otherwise self-contradicts himself. A value requires the idea that people ought to do something rather than something else, but without the Tao there is no grounds for one thing over another. He addresses arguments such as instincts, survival, etc. and shows where each one of them fails. After addressing these arguments, he brings up one more argument that he addresses in the next section.

The question is “Why do we need values?”. We might need the Tao if we want values, but why do we need them? In the final section called “The Abolition of Man”, C.S. Lewis addresses this. He starts by arguing that man has been trying to “conquer” nature by science, technology, etc. The last thing for us to conquer will be human nature. He argues that without any values, the first generation to conquer human nature will be the last generation of men. After that, everyone would be conditioned by that one generation, and no longer be “men”. If all the values we have are given to us by the previous generation, then the generation that perfects it will be the last free generation. Once that happens, man will be abolished and only nature will remain.

The Abolition of Man is one of C.S. Lewis’s most debated writings. He argues that by abolishing objectivity, we abolish ourselves. While C.S. Lewis is a Christian, he does not use Christianity in his arguments. He claims this is true for any religion, or even any person. He writes this as a warning. He shows us where this path leads and makes us consider the consequences. The Abolition of Man makes a solid argument for moral values and offers a stark contrast to many people’s views today even eighty years later.

The Abolition of Man clearly shows that ideas have consequences.