 First edition | |
| Author | C. S. Lewis |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Value and natural law |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | 1943 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Hardcover and paperback |
| Preceded by | A Preface to Paradise Lost |
| Followed by | Beyond Personality |
| Text | Abolition of Man at Internet Archive |
| Part of a series on |
| Human enhancement |
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The Abolition of Man is a 1943 book by C. S. Lewis. Subtitled "Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools", it uses a contemporary text about poetry as a starting point for a defense of objective value and natural law. Lewis goes on to warn readers about the consequences of doing away with ideas of objective value. It defends "man's power over nature" as something worth pursuing but criticizes the use of it to debunk values, the value of science itself being among them. The title of the book then, is taken to mean that moral relativism threatens the idea of humanity itself. The book was first delivered as a series of three evening lectures at King's College, Newcastle, part of the University of Durham, as the Riddell Memorial Lectures on 24–26 February 1943.