Abolition of Man
The Abolition of Man emerged from three lectures C. S. Lewis delivered at Durham University in 1943, during the height of World War II. Lewis was responding to what he saw as a dangerous trend in modern education—the systematic undermining of objective moral values through supposedly neutral academic approaches. He had encountered an English textbook that treated moral judgments as mere expressions of personal feeling, and he recognized this as symptomatic of a broader cultural shift that would ultimately destroy human nature itself.
Lewis argues that there exists a universal moral law—what he calls the Tao, borrowing from Chinese philosophy—that underlies all healthy human societies. This natural law provides the objective foundation for moral reasoning and the cultivation of virtue. When educators abandon this foundation in favor of relativism or purely rational analysis, they create "men without chests"—people who lack the moral sentiments necessary to connect their rational minds with their appetites. Lewis demonstrates how this educational approach, which claims to be freeing students from prejudice, actually conditions them to accept whatever values those in power choose to impose. The final movement of his argument reveals the logical endpoint: technological power will eventually enable a small elite to remake human nature according to their own arbitrary preferences, effectively abolishing humanity as we know it.
The work has endured as one of the most prescient critiques of moral relativism and technological hubris in the twentieth century. Lewis anticipated debates about genetic engineering, social conditioning, and the relationship between science and values that continue to intensify today. His defense of objective moral truth has influenced Christian apologetics, conservative philosophy, and educational theory for decades.
Who should read this: Anyone grappling with questions about moral relativism, the role of values in education, or the relationship between technological progress and human flourishing will find Lewis's argument essential. This is not primarily devotional reading but rather rigorous philosophical engagement that demands careful attention to logical development.