The Abolition of Man - C. S. Lewis
This is one of Lewis' books that I've owned but never actually read until now. After reading his Space Trilogy, a friend commented that I should read this one, too, while That Hideous Strength was still fresh in my mind.
The unwieldy subtitle of The Abolition of Man is "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools." The book consists of three essays which start out about education (particularly English) and then lead into philosophy and the concept of Man versus Nature. One of the underlying themes is the idea of a set of ethical/moral values (Lewis uses the term Tao as shorthand for this concept) which stands outside of anything we can deduce rationally or create from natural instincts.
It's a short book but densely written, and definitely not something to read while sleepy. It does have some interesting points about what we call "man conquering nature": essentially, Lewis points out, what really happens is some men conquering others.
Fed to jonathan's brain | November 07, 2006
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