The Abolition of Man, or, Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools was published by Oxford University Press in 1943, based on the Riddell Memorial Lectures Lewis delivered at the University of Durham in February 1943. It is Lewis’s most purely philosophical work — three short lectures, totaling barely twenty thousand words, that mount a devastating argument against moral subjectivism and predict, with chilling accuracy, the consequences of a civilization that abandons belief in objective moral truth.
The Argument
Lecture I: “Men Without Chests” — Lewis critiques a textbook (pseudonymously called “The Green Book”) that teaches schoolchildren that value judgments are merely subjective statements about the speaker’s feelings, not statements about the world. Lewis argues this seemingly minor pedagogical choice has catastrophic consequences: it produces people who have intellect and appetite but no “chest” — no trained moral sensibility to mediate between the two.
Lecture II: “The Way” — Lewis argues that all major civilizations share a common moral framework, which he calls the Tao (borrowing the Chinese term deliberately). This universal moral law — “do not murder,” “honor your parents,” “do not steal,” “protect the weak” — is not a human invention but an objective reality that humans discover. Any attempt to replace it with a “new” morality based on instinct, utility, or scientific reasoning will inevitably fail, because the very concepts of “better” and “worse” depend on the Tao for their meaning.
Lecture III: “The Abolition of Man” — Lewis predicts that a civilization that rejects the Tao will eventually produce a class of “Conditioners” who have the power to shape human nature itself (through education, propaganda, genetics) but no moral framework to guide that power. These Conditioners will not be superhuman — they will be subhuman, because they will have cut themselves off from the only source of genuine values. The result is not the triumph of Man over Nature but the abolition of Man: the reduction of humanity to raw material to be shaped by those who happen to hold power.
Collecting The Abolition of Man
First edition (Oxford University Press, London, 1943): Blue-gray paper wrappers (no cloth binding for the first issue).
Market values:
- First edition in wrappers, fine: $2,000–$5,000
- Good condition: $500–$1,500
- Later cloth editions: $100–$300
First American edition (Macmillan, New York, 1947): $500–$1,500.
The book’s slimness and its original publication in paper wrappers mean that copies in fine condition are scarce. Its influence on subsequent philosophy of education and its prescience about genetic engineering and technological manipulation of human nature give it growing intellectual prestige.