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Show Notes
Quote-of-the-week
You will even find people who write about the sixteenth century as if Magic were a medieval survival and Science the new thing that came in to sweep it away. Those who have studied the period know better. There was very little magic in the Middle Ages: the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are the high noon of magic. The serious magical endeavour and the serious scientific endeavour are twins: one was sickly and died, the other strong and throve. But they were twins. They were born of the same impulse.
C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (The Abolition of Man)
Introduction
Welcome friends to Pints With Jack! As we were wrapping up the last episode, Matt dropped off to take his wife to the hospital as her contractions were starting to pick up… so I’m guessing you’d like to know how that ended?
Well, when they got to the hospital, they learned it was a false alarm, so they went home. But they went back a few days later, and… habemus infantem! Her name is Sienna Marie (clearly inspired by David: his wife’s name is Marie, and they own a green Sienna).
Chit Chat
- Matt is at home today, looking after Mary-Margaret and his newborn daughter. We expect for him to be quite distracted for the meantime.
Toast
- Q. Andrew, can you please toast our new little shrub?
Discussion
Recap
- The book begins with Lewis arguing against subjectivism, contrasting it with a doctrine of objective value which he says we must presuppose. He calls this “the Tao”.
- While critics may attempt to define a system of values outside of the Tao (based on Utilitarianism, Reason, or Instinct), Jack shows they all fail and are simply cherry-picking from the Tao without justification.
- He says that alternatively, rather than attempting to ground a different system of values, critics may abandon “value” entirely, simply shaping humanity as they see fit without even trying to justify it.
- We began Chapter 3 this month pondering the phrase “Man’s conquest of nature”…
- After considering the aeroplane, the wireless, and the contraceptive, Lewis concludes that “Man’s conquest of nature” is simply the accumulation of power by some men over others.
- Lewis asks us to consider humanity throughout time, with each generation attempting to
- (a) limit the power of its predecessors and (b) exercise its own power over its successors.
- Up until now, a generation’s ability to do this has been somewhat limited.
- However, Lewis warns us of a future where eugenics, prenatal conditioning, and applied psychology will allow one singular generation to shape the rest of humanity for all time.
- If these men operate outside of the Tao, where the words such as “good” and “bad” have no meaning, how will they choose to shape us?
- Well, deprived of the Tao, the Conditioners will do this based on their natural impulses
- Ironically, this means that as man thinks he’s conquering Nature, Nature will have actually conquered man!
- Human beings will have become objects, artifacts to be manipulated.
- The Conditioners will force their will on their subjects and Jack suggests that they may come to hate their subjects, envying the illusion of whatever artificial conscience they choose impart to them.
- Well, deprived of the Tao, the Conditioners will do this based on their natural impulses
- Jack then reexpresses his argument, showing how “nature” is just what we call something when we reduce it to its parts and manage to exert control over it.
- In fact, he says we reduce things to mere “Nature” in order that we may “conquer” them and when we do this, we lose something of it.
- Once again he warns of a final step from which, when taken, we may never recover…
- … reducing our own species to “nature” and lose something essential to our humanity…
- …and in the final section we read today, we’ll further explore this “magician’s bargain”…
01. “Having it Both Ways”
Q. Lewis says that humanity has been trying to be like Shakepeare’s King Lear – why?
Q. Why does Jack think the Tao our only option?
02. “Devils are Unmaking Language”
Q. Who is liable to bring about this tyranny?
Q. Jack then gives a great one-line summary of this whole book: “Traditional values are to be ‘debunked’ and mankind to be cut out into some fresh shape at the will (which must, by hypothesis, be an arbitrary will) of some few lucky people in one lucky generation which has learned how to do it. The belief that we can invent ‘ideologies’ at pleasure, and the consequent treatment of mankind as mere ὕλη, specimens, preparations, begins to affect our very language” I’m sure Andrew has something to say about this change in language…
Q. Lewis says that the insidious nature of what is going on has been concealed by abstraction. What does he mean?
03. “Anti-Science?”
Q. Jack says that some people will inevitably say he’s anti-science and an obscurist who’s just trying to prevent the growth of knowledge. How does he defend himself?
04. “Magic & Science”
Q. Before Lewis explains how science itself might hold the cure, it first of all spends some time talking about magic. Why’s he talking about magic?
05. “The Scientific Cure?”
Q. So, given everything he’s said about magic and science, why might he imagine that science could possibly be the preventative measure against the abolition of man?
Q. What would be some characteristics of this new Natural Philosophy?
06. “Asking the Impossible?”
Q. Lewis ends on a note rather lacking in hope… In speaking about this new Natural Philosophy, he may be asking for something impossible. “Perhaps, in the nature of things, analytical understanding must always be a basilisk which kills what it sees and only sees by killing” What does he mean?
Q. What’s the final step regarding the Tao which might be the point of no return?
Wrap Up
Closing Thoughts
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