The Abolition of ManC.S. Lewis’s Classic Work that Is Number 7 on National Review’s List of “100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century” In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society. Both astonishing and prophetic, The Abolition of Man is one of the most debated of Lewis’s extraordinary works. |
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Abolition Analects of Confucius Ancient Chinese Ancient Egyptian Ancient Jewish Babylonian Beowulf C. S. Lewis C. S. Christian Chronicles of Narnia Cicero claim Conditioners Confession conquest of Nature course death debunking Dr Waddington duty emotion Epictetus ethics Exodus fact feelings Gaius and Titius Greek Green Book Grief Observed ground Hávamál Hindu honour human Hymn to Samas Ibid impulses Innovator Janet judgements of value justice kind Leviticus Lewis C. S. Lewis List of Sins magician Man's conquest Man’s power Master means ments Mere Christianity mind motives never obey Instinct object Old Norse Orbilius philosophical Plato pleasure posterity power over Nature predicate of value preservation Problem of Pain produce pupil rational reality reject Righteous Soul Roman Screwtape Letters sense sentiments simply species spirit sublime things Thou shalt tion traditional morality truth valid value judgements virtue Volospá word
Popular passages
Page 106 - Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Page 6 - That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow • warmer among the ruins of lona.
Page 105 - Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live; let him wait for (his appointed) time, as a servant (waits) for the payment of his wages.
Page 57 - The real picture is that of one dominant age . . . which resists all previous ages most successfully and dominates all subsequent ages most irresistibly, and thus Is the real master of the human species. But even within this master generation (itself an infinitesimal minority of the species) the power will be exercised by a minority smaller still. Man's conquest of Nature, if the dreams of some scientific planners are realized, means the rule of a few hundreds of men over billions upon billions of...
Page 34 - I have an impulse to do so and so' we cannot by any ingenuity derive the practical principle 'I ought to obey this impulse.' Even if it were true that men had a spontaneous, unreflective impulse to sacrifice their own lives for the preservation of their fellows, it remains a quite separate question whether this is an impulse they should control or one they should indulge. For even the Innovator admits that many impulses (those which conflict with the preservation of the species) have to be controlled....
Page 57 - But even within this master generation (itself an infinitesimal minority of the species) the power will be exercised by a minority smaller still. Man's conquest of Nature, if the dreams of some scientific planners are realized, means the rule of a few hundreds of men over billions upon billions of men. There neither is nor can be any simple increase of power on Man's side. Each new power won by man is a power over man as well.
Page 12 - For every one 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.