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Summary: Truly astonishing
Review: If it be in fact true that the Scriptures are the only source of knowledge & truth about all things, why then did the reader from Campbell, California even contemplate reading this book by C S Lewis? You won't find any knowledge or truth in C S Lewis, because C S Lewis is not Scripture.There are some Scriptural admonitions that seem relevant at the moment, most notably Exodus 20:16 and Ecclesiastes 5:3. And if we're thinking of sending any C S Lewis books to persons who are either incapable of understanding them, or eager for whatever reason to misrepresent what is found therein, we may just be in violation of Matthew 7:6. C S Lewis does not claim equality between all religions; he claims, however, that there is sufficient similarity in the various creeds' understanding of the moral law as to make the moral law universally binding. He chose the name of Tao to describe the moral law, because it is (unless we are mistaken) a Chinese word meaning "the Way." Lewis was fully conscious of Christ's declaration "I am the Way" and never exhibited -- in this work, or in any other -- the slightest sign of disagreeing with that. He was no syncretist; he was no Taoist; he was no secular humanist; and he was no trousered ape incapable of understanding plain English!
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Summary: The Difficulty with Lewis
Review: Many people fail to turn to Lewis because he seems aloof from the world. His message is very good, but it is very academic. Some are turned off from his message because of it. In that regard, I would not recommend this book as a high-volume reader. Rather, those already interested in the academic would profit from it.
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Summary: Poignant and Profound
Review: In a style that is none other that Lewis-ian, the greatest philosopher of our time examines the problem of "Men without Chests." He explores the fact that though we dismiss the "heart" and its role, we are outraged when products of the heart (eg compassion, etc) are absent from society. His brutal examination of this double standard is the much needed hard word this society needs. While too often we fall into haphazard, sloppy "It just feels good" behavior, we also cannot ignore the role of the heart as a part of the tripartite soul. Lewis calls for an active heart that is in sync with and tethered by the head (the logos). This world is greatly lacking of an understanding of cooperation between the two and Lewis examines the impact this sad phenomenom is having on contemporary culture. The Abolition of Man is insightful and profitable for both the Christian and the non Christian--whether your goal is to understand better how to love, how to impact culture, how to understand those around you or how to reverse the "follow your heart" mentality, this book is a must read.
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Summary: Words of wisdom too often ignored
Review: If you are a parent, and worry about the decline of the quality of education in today's society, you must read "The Abolition of Man". Written 50 years ago, and eerily prophetic, CS Lewis railed against the dumbing down of education in the British school systems, from an academic standpoint, but more importantly, from the standpoint of morality and values. As is evidenced in his other non-fiction (Mere Christianity, for example) Lewis was a believer in the doctrine of Natural Law (held by Catholics and many Protestants). This doctrine recognizes that since man was created in the image of God, traces of that image still remains. The Fall of Man severely damaged the image of God in man, but did not totally destroy it. Thus, throughout human history, integral values systems still maintain cetain laws, customs, beliefs, etc. which cross beyond religious and philosophical boundaries, and are, for the most part, common to all. This is an example of Natural Law at work -- and this is precisely what the secular education structures, both in Lewis' day, and even more so today, wish to utterly destroy, and replace with the nonsensical notion of a society in which there is no foundational morality; no foundational "right" or "wrong". Lewis saw it happening half a century ago -- and people did not listen. The case is even more grave today. Will people listen today?
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Summary: Lewis Renders These Times Comprehensible
Review: This is one of those books that really gets more relevant every year. The more conversations that I have with college students, the more I realize that the assumptions that he attacks here are only growing stronger and more entrenched in the places where culture is formed. He's got a good view of how the human becomes inhuman. In the last 50 years, Western cultural institutions more and more openly speak of humans as objects that can be manipulated with impunity. This is a must-read.
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Summary: Refreshing
Review: A clearly argued, refreshing, thought-provoking, book. Such a breather in this world so loaded with received opinion. The one-star reviewer from Washington, clearly an anti-Western, deconstructionist type, probably a college freshman, unfairly criticizes this book in order to put forth his/her own agenda, which is not surprisingly: Objective moral standards cannot be shown to exist apart from the political structure in which thesestandards are espoused Yawn. Well, at least we know that's right out of a book. One might also mention that people cannot exist with tossing together at the very least an ad-hoc political structure in order to work together for their continued existence. The moral standards, like the political structure, comes from the individuals and not vice versa. This common-sense truth renders the reviewer's opinion an absolute nullity. C.S. Lewis is, at his worst, far more thoughtful than said review.
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Summary: P.T. Barnum was right...
Review: In this tome, Lewis argues for "objective" morality and, oddly enough, that other cultures have always embraced western mores. This is the sort of thing to be expected, the bitter musings of an Englishman who used to be a subject of an empire, but now is a colony of an even greater empire (the Untied Snakes). Objective moral standards cannot be shown to exist apart from the political structure in which these standards are espoused. Finally, Lewis's use of the term "Tao" is absurd. In its most well known use, the Tao Te Ching (I could cite others but this will do) Lao Tzu wrote, about 2 millenia ago: "The Way that can be experienced is not true; The world that can be constructed is not real. The Way manifests all that happens and may happen; The world represents all that exists and may exist" Lewis wants to fool folks into thinking they're thinking thoughts with "gravitas" but, folks, watch out for that man behind the curtain!
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Summary: powerful arguments
Review: The Abolition of Man is a clear exposition on how a lack of critical thinking is a the root of the multitude of problems the plague both modern academia and today's scientific establishment. In a reasoned and lucid way that is pure Lewis, this book lays bare the intellectual sources of this infection (mainly subjectivism and relativism). His argument for objectivism is very convincing. This is a great read. So read it.
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Summary: Reads like an open letter to Richard Rorty. . .
Review: . . . but written when Rorty was still in diapers. This is by far the most prophetic, and the most disturbing, of Lewis' works. Starting with a deceptively simple observation - that modern (now postmodern) philosophy tends to reduce all statements of value to mere statements of subjective feeling - Lewis goes on to demonstrate the corrosive and ultimately fatal effect of this line of thinking on any civilized culture. Lewis accurately predicts the parallel development of two trends: (1) the loss of any objective transcendent moral standards; and (2) the ability of a scientific or political elite, through social conditioning and/or genetic manipulation, to affect the thinking of successive generations of the rest of us - the great unwashed. The ascendancy, during the last decade, of moral relativism and the political correctness movement demonstrate how far down these parallel tracks we have come (i.e., Rorty: truth is what gets us what we want; truth is what my peers will let be get by with saying; Christians are "the natural constituency of Hitler"). While he's at it, Lewis refutes the postmodern, and generally unexamined, truism that the historic moral principles of Western Civilization are fundamentally different from other cultures' norms, and thus are arbitrary and nonbinding. In a lengthy appendix, Lewis shows that the great moral principles are timeless and have been generally accepted by all civilized societies, at all times (until ours). So where will it end? In an ironic conclusion, Lewis predicts that what will be hailed an man's ultimate victory over Nature (such as human cloning?) will actually be Nature's ultimate victory over man. This will occur when we can fully control the kind of people the next generation will be (i.e., how they think), but in the absence of moral standards, this choice will be made arbitrarily; that is, according to purely Natural impulses - thus we have the Abolition of Man as man and the ascendancy of man as animal. I must take issue with the reviewer who referred to the book as a "disguised apologetic" for Christianity. While Lewis openly acknowledges his Christian beliefs, he takes great pains to establish that the existence of objective moral standards is transcultural; that it is "trans-" any specific religious or ethical system other than relativism. Those who insist otherwise are simply out of touch; controlled by their own hermeneutic of suspicion, they see closet Christians lurking behind any and all moral absolutes. A final point - I must also disagree with the reviewer who referred to the book too difficult for the average reader. I'm an accountant, I have no training in philosophy, and I'm definitely not a candidate for MENSA membership - but I had no trouble "getting it." Light reading it's not, but, hey, it's short, the type is large, the book is cheap, and it's written in Lewis' inimitable conversational style. Don't be intimidated, the stakes are too high!
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Summary: Need For Universal Truth
Review: Attack on the idea of universal truth and the values that derive from it is stronger now than in 1944 when this book was written. Yet, despite many rhetorical defenses of universal truth and values launched in the "culture wars," this remains one of, if not the best, defenses of universal truth and values. Lewis believes in Natural Laws - laws of morality, such as duty to children, parents, elders, the "golden rule," mercy, magnanimity, justice - which have been accepted both throughout history and by varied cultures. Lewis calls these laws "the Tao." The problem as Lewis outlines it, is that if nothing is self-evident (i.e., true), then nothing can be proven. And, if nothing is obligatory because it is self-evident, then nothing is obligatory for its own sake, i.e., because it is true. If nothing is obligatory, then rules of conduct are subject to pleasure or whim and are enforced only by power of some over others. Ultimately, this robs of us our humanity. Lewis says, "A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery." The consequence of rejecting the idea of universal truth, or "the Tao," is the destruction of the society which rejects it. This is, as Lewis says, tragically comical because "we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible."
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