Common Reading: The Abolition of Man

We are pleased to introduce you to our Common Reading for 2010-2011: The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis. Surprisingly this set of lectures is in the public domain and so is available online at a number of sites including here . This is a short philosophical work about moral education—a topic that is very much at the heart of our own liberal arts programs. Lewis’ context is British education in the 1940s so some of his expressions may need a little explanation. But his message is as relevant today as it was in 1943. Now as usual we are not proposing this Common Reading as the final or definitive answer on this question but merely as a starting point for our discussion of the purpose and nature of a liberal arts education today.

Perhaps Lewis' chief point is that moral education, with the same basic content, is found all over the world and throughout. This traditional morality has often been called the Natural Law in Western philosophy and in Eastern, the Tao. However in modern western cultures subjectivism or moral relativism has become the overriding philosophy, almost the sine qua non, of modern philosophy. Almost all of our modern problems can be seen to arise from this fundamental error. This case has never been more clearly expressed than by C. S. Lewis.

Here Lewis is not writing juvenile fiction as in his Chronicles of Narnia, though the same value system is clear in both. So give him a chance to be more precise, if slightly less entertaining. Don’t give up after the first paragraph; his message will become clearer and more interesting as you give it time. And it is an important one, well worth your time. Read at least until you come across his expression of “men without chest.” By then you will be hooked.

The Abolition of Man