Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9788832553734 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Reading Essentials |
| Publication date: | 03/26/2019 |
| Sold by: | StreetLib SRL |
| Format: | NOOK Book |
| Sales rank: | 37,623 |
| File size: | 199 KB |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
The Abolition Of Man
4.3 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
31 reviews.
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This book is the most concise treatment of postmodernism--and all of its absurdities--that I have ever read. This is my fourth time through it and its better than the last. Definitely my favorite book.
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Though it is a short book, there is so much to gain from it. I like his thinking, explanations, questions that really made me think deeper about things. Now to read more of his works.
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I couldn't put the book down. Short but packed with thought provoking widom.
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This is a short concise reading. It captures you from the first to the last sentence. In between it offers you great knowledge and respective concept. It analyzes each of its claims and deliver them with example which widen the understanding of the reading.
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Lewis tackles the very daunting subjects of ethics and reason in this short but gratifying read. However this book is not for the faint of heart and can be difficult to understand at times.
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It is amazing to me to see how long the author's wisdom abides on this planet. My intellect was very much stimulated by the profound understanding of the author regarding morality and 'Man's conquest of Nature.' It became clear to me that the human institution consists not only of body, but soul also. A whole new perspective on life can be learned from this very small book. The precipice reached in this title is this for sure: 'He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life' (RSV-John 12:25). There surely is a prophetic touch to this powerful dissertation. If you seek to understand the 'signs of the times,' don't let this book pass you by!
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In this slim volume of three essays, C. S. Lewis makes the argument for what he calls the Tao, "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 thing we are" (31). Basically (and I know I am really simplifying this) it boils down to this: you cannot condemn "traditional morality" on the grounds that there are no absolutes, because condemning something is an absolute statement.So there are absolutes. Though many are generally agreed upon, others are up for discussion. Lewis writes that though he is a Theist and a Christian, he is not here making an argument for his belief system. Indeed, in the Appendices at the end he quotes from a multitude of sources, religious and secular, from ancient times to modern, demonstrating the remarkable similarities in human society regarding the Tao. This lines up with Scripture, interestingly enough (see Romans 2:12¿15).Lewis also goes into an interesting discussion about how Man is supposedly conquering Nature through scientific advances. But these advances aren't really Man conquering Nature; they are men exercising power over other men. For example, the technology of contraceptives could be denied to some people by the contraceptive makers. It isn't Nature that is being controlled here, but people.Eventually we may get to the point where the group exercising the control (the "Conditioners") decides to make Man "better" ¿ but of course they have to have an absolute value system to make a value judgment that one thing is better than another. Using different words like "primal" or "deep-rooted" or whatever instead of "better" doesn't solve the problem of using the Tao to make value judgments. So the Conditioners will make future man something different and thereby exercise a far greater control than ever of one generation over another. This is the abolition of Man.Some quotes:For every pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. (27)The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it. (31¿2)It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. (35)Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey "people." People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war. (49)This thing which I have called the Tao, and which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgments. (55)The rebellion of new ideologies against the Tao is a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find they had destroyed themselves. The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary color, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in. (56)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. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut. He can say nothing to the purpose. (59)Lewis is one of those authors who make me feel simultaneously intelligent and in dire need of more education. He has the trick of making his reader understand a thing as if clearly seeing something heretofore only dimly perceived. It is as if I am discovering something I always knew... and then realizing how dimly and vaguely I knew it, and how inadequate is all my articulation of it. Excellent.
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C.S. Lewis has done what most christian writers cannot do: unbiasedly write a fantastic critique of man's current state of nature. While there are some christian themes in this book, Lewis has most steered away from it, offering a truly intelligent and quite true critique on man's nature. I am not much for political writings but this is one hell of a book. It's short, sweet and to the point; and what a good point it is.
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I didn't think it was an easy read. But the main point was drove home in the last lecture when he said, "You cannot go on seeing through things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. . . . If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through all things is the same as not to see.¿The whole point about seeing something is because there is an object that can be seen. If everything is all relative, that very statement itself is a belief. By that statement, you are "seeing" something. Even an atheist believes in "there is no god."
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The Abolition of Man is a simply splendid work, a juicy pamphlet with all the concentration of thought and provocative conclusions that Lewis can produce. A serious look at what was fundamentally wrong with the education of his day, this critique is still incredibly pertinent now. Lewis tackles the very basic issue of absolute values, employing logical arguments with great success to show just how untenable, desperate, and morally degrading the views of relativists are. This is an excellent work that any Christian should read, and to which I would readily refer a skeptic. Lewis' literary, philosophical, and theological strengths are apparent in this fine work. Highly recommended.
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Not at all what I have expected, mainly because this book is no apology for Christianity, but rather for the more numinous and vague existence of a generally common morality. That being said, Lewis is quite convincing that morality (the Tao is his term) is more than human conventions, and he is also convincing that it matters, and matters very much.
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If I could recommend one single book (aside from the scriptures) in the entire world for a young person to read that would help them in life, it would be "The Abolition of Man" by CS Lewis. It's a short book-----really it's an essay. This book does more to explain and expose the moral relativism that has poisoned our society....from politics, to academia, to popular culture. Aristotle stated: "the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought." Aristotle was referring to objective truth. The world we live in today has largely rejected the reality of objective truth. The culture today lies to us and tells us that there is no objective morality, truth, or right and wrong. This is a lie. The Chinese speak of the TAO---the TAO is the reality beyond all predicates. it is the doctrine of objective value. It is the belief that certain things and beliefs are really true, and others are really false. It is the doctrine of "objective order" that should rule our thoughts and actions. The "Abolition of Man" explodes the lie of our age....the lie that all things have equal value and the lie that nothing is inherently bad and nothing is inherently good.
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I love C.S. Lewis, and this is a brilliant work. The formatting for this copy is very easy to read and true to the Harper Collins form.
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