WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:11.400 Alone. Welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom paths between primary and 2 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:15.240 secondary world. I'm your host, Andrew Snyder, and I am always grateful 3 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:30.399 for your company. All Right, welcome back, And first of all, 4 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:34.119 I do want to apologize for the lack of content over here. I thought 5 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:36.439 that I was going to have some more time this summer, but in reality, 6 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.759 I've been as busy as ever, if not more so. I'm teaching 7 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:44.159 I don't know, five or six online classes, some of them brand new, 8 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.920 and so I've had to produce a lot of content for that. And 9 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:50.880 I'm currently in talks with a publisher regarding a potential book deal, and so 10 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:55.240 I've been drafting a couple chapters from that book and so hopefully that'll lead to 11 00:00:55.320 --> 00:01:00.560 something. And then also i've been teaching this independent Philosophy and Fiction of CS 12 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:04.480 Lewis course, which I've really just enjoyed greatly. I've enjoyed doing the research, 13 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:10.239 I've enjoyed producing the content. I've enjoyed our discord conversations as well as 14 00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:15.560 especially our weekly live Zoom meetings. It's something that I've been looking forward to 15 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:19.040 every week, and I think that other participants have as well. So far 16 00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:23.760 we've covered out of the Silent Planet Perilandra, and we are currently finishing up 17 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:27.680 That Hideous Strength. And I've been doing some bonus content for this unit, 18 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:32.120 because, as I said, this is a focus on the fiction of C. 19 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.239 S. Lewis, even though I've been including some secondary reading Lewis essays 20 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:38.439 and some other texts and whatnot. But in the midst of this that Hideous 21 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:42.239 Strength section, I've also been doing some content I'm calling a bonus content on 22 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:47.400 the Abolition of Man, because that's not obviously his fiction. However, it 23 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:49.480 is very much related to that Hideous Strength, and in fact, in the 24 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:53.000 prologue to That Hideous Strength, Lewis says that explicitly that the message of that 25 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:57.879 story is very much tied to what he lays out in a nonfiction form in 26 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:02.319 The Abolition of Man. Because this kind of bonus material, I'm also going 27 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:06.480 to drop it into this podcast. That way you have some content as well 28 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:10.800 as you wait for the more regular content, as I do hope to get 29 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:15.080 back to the Bewulf series very soon. But what you're about to hear is 30 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:19.400 the audio for my presentation on the first half of the Abolition of Man. 31 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.479 And so that covers the essays Men without Chess and the Way, and then 32 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:28.439 next time you will get the second half of the Abolition of Man. And 33 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:32.639 so during this presentation you will hear some references to That Hideous Strength, because 34 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:38.919 again is the original context for this presentation. But even if you have never 35 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:42.199 read That Hideous Strength or even the Abolition of Man for that matter, which 36 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.680 I mean, you should read both of those. But I think that these 37 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:50.120 summaries and these analyzes will stand on their own as being worthwhile content. And 38 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.879 if you would like to jump into this philosophy and fiction of C. S. 39 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:57.680 Lewis, course, you are still more than welcome to do. So 40 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:01.000 you will have all the content into definitely, And so it's okay that you've 41 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:06.520 missed at this point almost all of the Ransom series. You can listen to 42 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:09.000 that whenever you want to and jump right into where we're about to start, 43 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:13.319 which is till we have Faces, and then after that we will read the 44 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:16.039 Great Divorce and then all of the Narnia books, and so you're walking to 45 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:19.319 jump in for all of that, and then just listen to what you missed 46 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.159 whenever you're able to, and if you'd like to enroll. Then just go 47 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:25.319 to Andrew Snyder dot Padia dot com and you can see that link in the 48 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:30.759 show notes and use the promo Code podcast for half off tuition and that's good 49 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:35.280 for the next month. And so as I record and publish this, it 50 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.240 is June twenty third, and so this code is going to be good until 51 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:43.879 July twenty third. Use the Code podcast to get fifty percent off enrollment. 52 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:47.360 And I would love for you to jump in and join the currently sixty participants 53 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:51.360 who are in this course, and so it's a good robust group and I 54 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:53.199 would love to have you join in. But for now, let's go ahead 55 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:57.840 and jump into my presentation on the first half of C. S. Lewis's 56 00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:21.720 The Abolition of Man. Hello, welcome back. So obviously this week and 57 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:26.959 next week we're not starting new text. We're continuing with that hideous strength, 58 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:31.360 and I don't really feel a particular need to provide introductory videos for each section 59 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:34.560 now that we've started in on the book itself, and so I've decided that 60 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:39.319 instead for your beginning of the week content, I'm going to break up The 61 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:43.040 Abolish of Man over two weeks, and so this week we'll be covering the 62 00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:46.360 first two essays in that book, which is Men Without Chess and The Way, 63 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:50.360 and then next week we'll cover the other two essays. Now, Lewis 64 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:57.800 mentions in his preface to That Hideous Strength that the ideas of that story are 65 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.839 very much laid out in The Abolish of Man, at least in large part 66 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:04.879 some of the most significant themes. And so this is a very strong opinion 67 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:08.600 text, as I've already discussed, and so I think it's worth taking a 68 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:13.439 look at now. I know a lot of people have expressed difficulty with the 69 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.240 Abolition of Man, having a hard time getting their minds around exactly what's going 70 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:23.040 on. Now I have the benefit of coming to Lewis not just from a 71 00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:27.680 literary background, but principally coming to Lewis from a philosophical background. Right, 72 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:30.319 that's my academic training, that's the world that I work in. And so 73 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:35.079 maybe for that reason this text has not been too much of a difficult struggle 74 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:39.040 for me, and I'm hoping that I can bridge some that gap for you 75 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.839 if it has been a struggle for you, and help you to see what's 76 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:45.439 going on there in that text, and by extension, what's going on in 77 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.759 that hideous strength, and of course what's going on in our world as well. 78 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:50.959 And so let's go and take a look at the abolition of man, 79 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:57.720 all right. Now, of course I had to feature this cover one of 80 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.519 the best book cover arts of all time. Now, yes, this is 81 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.800 from an unlicensed version, but nonetheless it is a version that you can find 82 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:09.839 that you can purchase. It just makes me laugh, but also I think 83 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:16.160 it's just a good job of demonstrating the degradation of humanity into the beastly that 84 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:19.519 we find through the philosophy that we're going to be talking about in this study. 85 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:24.720 Okay, So at the beginning of Men Without Jess Lewis says in their 86 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:28.240 second chapter, Guias and Titus quote the well known story of Coleridge at the 87 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:31.160 waterfall. You remember that there were two tourists present, that one called it 88 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:35.920 sublime and the other pretty, and that Coleridge mentally endorsed the first judgment and 89 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:41.319 rejected the second with disgust. Guius and Titus comment as follows. When the 90 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:44.759 man said this is sublime, he appeared to be making a remark about the 91 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:48.319 waterfall. Actually he was not making a remark about the waterfall, but remark 92 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:53.279 about his own feelings. What he was saying was really, I have feelings 93 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:58.519 associated in my mind with the word sublime, or shortly, I have sublime. 94 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.199 Feelings. Are a good many deep questions settled in a pretty summary fashion, 95 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:06.439 But the authors are not yet finished. They add, this confusion is 96 00:07:06.439 --> 00:07:11.160 continually present in language. As we use it. We appear to be saying 97 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:15.160 something very important about something, and actually we are only saying something about our 98 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:23.279 own feelings. Now, this green book that we're told about written by Gaius 99 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:27.480 and Titus, in reality, is the Control of Language, written by Alec 100 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:32.000 King and Martin Kettley. And I was able to find that full text online. 101 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:35.600 I don't have the interest or time and digging into that right now. 102 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:40.439 Eventually I'd like to come around to it to get a even better grasp as 103 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:44.759 to exactly what it is that Lewis is dealing with here. But in short, 104 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:51.399 Guyas and Titus are providing this textbook on English language for students. But 105 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:58.160 as we're going to see here, they're not just providing an instruction on language 106 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:03.600 in their instructional language. They are ultimately providing a philosophy that's being subtly brought 107 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:07.680 in Trojan Horse style, and maybe Guyas and Titus don't even recognize exactly what 108 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:11.600 it is that they are doing. But really what they're doing here is they 109 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:20.000 are presenting the worldview of scientism or of analytic philosophy of naturalism. And this 110 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.839 philosophy was very powerful, especially in Lewis's day, and we definitely see it 111 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:28.879 in our own day as well. This is the idea that the only real 112 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.759 knowledge that we can have, perhaps even the only meaningful language we can have, 113 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:39.039 deals with empirical realities, realities that we can scientifically investigate. In fact, 114 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.799 one of Lewis's contemporaries, in fact, even taught at the same college 115 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.720 for a time with Lewis, and they even had a debate with each other. 116 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:52.120 Ajair falls into this school of thought. He said that language is only 117 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:58.360 meaningful if it can be empirically verified, and so this is called verificationism. 118 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:05.559 And whenever we talk about things that can't be empirically verified, such as statements 119 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:09.879 of value, he says, at that point we're not actually using real language. 120 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:13.879 We are essentially just emoting in the same way as if we were just 121 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:20.960 kind of grunting with delight or with anger, and so statements about the value 122 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:26.679 of something only actually reveals something about your personal sentiments. You're never actually talking 123 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:31.799 about the world as it exists, because that comes outside the realm of empirical 124 00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:37.399 scientific knowledge. Therefore it's not actually knowledge at all. And we see how 125 00:09:37.559 --> 00:09:43.679 this philosophy infiltrated the humanities to the point where it's just being embedded in the 126 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:48.519 way. We're talking about the way that language works. And so if somebody 127 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:52.159 were to say it, the waterfall is sublime, our Guias and Titus are 128 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:54.759 going to say that, no, the waterfall is not sublime. All you're 129 00:09:54.799 --> 00:10:01.440 saying is you have sublime feelings when you are experiencing or when you are looking 130 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:07.039 at the waterfall. But the word sublime cannot actually extend to the waterfall itself. 131 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.759 And this whole exchange very much reminded me of this scene right here. 132 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:16.759 Good morning, What do you mean? Do you mean you wish me a 133 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:18.080 good morning? Or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I 134 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:22.600 want it or not. Oh, perhaps you mean to say that you feel 135 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:28.360 good on this particular morning, or are you simply stating that this is a 136 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:33.559 morning to be good on all of them months? I suppose. Okay, 137 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:39.200 So through their instruction in English language. Guys and Titus are ultimately teaching school 138 00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:46.879 children that all statements of value are nothing more than emotion and don't actually carry 139 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:52.519 meaning. They're not really a legitimate use of using language to communicate about shared 140 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:58.679 realities, which is really why we communicate, right, We speak words with 141 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:03.600 a common reference point to somebody else. That way we can both be referring 142 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:09.000 to the same thing. If you lose that common reference point of reality, 143 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:15.519 then you really lose communication because you lose that medium between agents. And so 144 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:20.039 what people with this school of thought want to do is to say that. 145 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.000 And so people who are operating under this school of thought are going to say 146 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:30.840 that the only shared reality we have comes down to empirical observation. But any 147 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:35.879 statement of value, that's just individualistic emoting. It's not real. We don't 148 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:39.840 have a common reference point regarding value. There is no natural law, there 149 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:46.159 are no ideals. Everything is just concrete and material. And so Lewis says, 150 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:48.960 the schoolboy who reads this passage in the Green Book will believe two propositions. 151 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.720 Firstly, that all sentences containing a predicate of value are statements about the 152 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:56.840 emotional state of a speaker, and secondly, that all such statements are unimportant. 153 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:01.039 Their words are that we appear to be saying something very important, when 154 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:05.080 in reality we are only saying something about our own feelings. No schoolboy will 155 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:09.440 be able to resist the suggestion brought to bear upon him by that word. 156 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:11.919 Only. I do not mean, of course, that he will make any 157 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:16.639 conscious inference from what he reads to a general philosophical theory that all values are 158 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.759 subjective and trivial. The very power of Gaius and Titus depends on the fact 159 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:24.360 that they are dealing with a boy, a boy who thinks he is doing 160 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:28.080 his English prep and has no notion that ethics, theology, and politics are 161 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:31.320 all at stake. It is not a theory they put into his mind, 162 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:37.480 but an assumption which, ten years hence its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, 163 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:41.639 will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never 164 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:48.080 recognized as a controversy at all. And so this is I think a great 165 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:56.360 red flag for us regarding what is going on in education, that we tend 166 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:01.279 to think that these big worldview issues don't really rise up and tell youth become 167 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:05.000 a little bit older and they're able to recognize consciously the stakes at play, 168 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:11.879 but that's not true at all. The most apparently mundane English grammar book can 169 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:18.440 do great harm by shaping the way that students understand language, and the way 170 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:22.440 that they understand language is going to directly shape the way that they're relating to 171 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:24.720 their world, because that's what language does. It helps us to relate to 172 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:30.399 the world. And so we need to be aware of the philosophy that's embedded 173 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:35.159 in these early grammar books, these early books on English language, and as 174 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:39.960 well as just the humanities in general, because the humanities consciously or unconsciously are 175 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.480 putting forth an idea as to what it means to be human, how do 176 00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:50.879 we live in this space that we occupy? And Guys and Titus are pushing 177 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:56.720 students in a particular direction, namely in discounting all idea of value as nothing 178 00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:01.279 more than irrational emotion. As Lewis says, I must, for the moment 179 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:05.799 content myself with pointing out that it is a philosophical and not a literary position. 180 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:09.240 In filling their book with it, they have been unjust to the parents 181 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:13.039 or headmaster who buys it, and who has got the work of amateur philosophers 182 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:18.200 where he expected the work of professional grammarians. A man would be annoyed if 183 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:22.120 his son returned for the dentist with his teeth untouched and his head cramed with 184 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:26.279 the dentists obit addicta on bimetallism or the Baconian theory, and so again we 185 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:33.759 need to recognize the philosophy that's being pushed through apparently ordinary non philosophical mediums. 186 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:39.240 Now stepping away from just simply the educational impact of this philosophy and moving into 187 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:46.399 a criticism of the philosophy itself, Lewis says, until quite modern times, 188 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:50.840 all teachers and even all men believed the universe to be such that certain emotional 189 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:54.240 reactions on our part could be either congress or incongress to it. Believed, 190 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:58.399 in fact, that objects did not merely receive, but could merit our approval 191 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:05.000 or disapprove, our reverence or our contempt. Lewis is making the point that 192 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.279 just about all people, not even just in the Christian world. Right, 193 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.159 there's the reason why instead of using the language of natural law, he's going 194 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:16.200 to use the language of the Tao, which he's going to mean basically the 195 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.360 same thing as natural law. But he's trying to demonstrate the fact that what 196 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:22.919 he's arguing for is not unique to a particular culture. It's not just some 197 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:28.360 Western ideal that we can dismantle. But this idea that there is such a 198 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.679 thing as right and wrong, that there are some affections to certain things that 199 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:35.960 we should have, well, this is an idea that we find across cultures, 200 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.759 across time, across spaces, and in fact, he argues us pretty 201 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:45.480 regularly, it's such as in mere Christianity that we cannot help but to appeal 202 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:48.639 to a moral law. It doesn't matter how much someone might claim to be 203 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:52.360 a relativist. You can push that to certain limits where they're going to say 204 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:56.399 that some things are right and some things are wrong. Most people, if 205 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:02.559 you put before them gross evils like genocide, they're not going to say, 206 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:06.039 well, these things are just wrong because I think they're kind of icky, 207 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:08.919 but you know, to each their own. No, most people are going 208 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.600 to say that these kinds of obvious heinous evils are just that they're evil, 209 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.720 or even if they're afraid they're using that language, they'll say they're wrong, 210 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:21.799 and they'll say that they should be stopped, that rapists should be punished because 211 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:26.000 they violated some kind of moral law, even if in another context that same 212 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:27.960 person might say there is no moral law, they don't really believe that, 213 00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:33.840 or the fact that so many people bring up tolerance as the chief virtue, 214 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:37.679 and they'll say that you can believe whatever you want to as long as you're 215 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:41.879 not pushing your beliefs on other people. But the problem is they're then appealing 216 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:47.000 to a law that stands between us, that we shouldn't push our beliefs onto 217 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:49.720 other people, And of course that means by extent, they are pushing their 218 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.919 beliefs onto us. And so despite the fact that they might be wrapped up 219 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:57.960 in all kinds of inconsistencies, they can't help but to recognize that there is 220 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.519 a moral law. Even if we disagree as to the application of the moral 221 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:06.279 law, and what things are justified and not justified within the moral law, 222 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:10.039 we cannot help but to appeal to the fact that there is indeed a moral 223 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:12.759 law that stands between us and judges us when one of us wrongs the other 224 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:18.599 person. Otherwise we cannot meaningfully talk about wronging another person. And so what 225 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:25.400 Guys and Titus are doing, they're not just criticizing a particular philosophy. They're 226 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:30.720 criticizing the very experience of what it means to be human, because to be 227 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:34.839 human is to be in touch with the moral law, with the natural law, 228 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:40.039 with the Tao. As he goes on, Saint Augustine defines virtue as 229 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:44.960 ordo amorus, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded 230 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:48.759 to that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it. Aristotle says 231 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.759 that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he 232 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:56.640 ought. When the age of reflective thought comes, the pupil who has been 233 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.960 thus trained in ordinate affections or just sentiments, will easily find the first principles 234 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.720 and ethics. But to the corrupt man they will never be visible at all, 235 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:08.359 and he can make no progress in that science. Plato before him it 236 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:12.119 said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right 237 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:18.000 responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and 238 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:22.400 hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likable, disgusting, and hateful. 239 00:18:23.240 --> 00:18:27.480 And so the path to wisdom is not just thinking the right things, 240 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:33.440 but cultivating the right affection, so that way you love the things that are 241 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:37.200 lovely, and you hate the things that are wicked, the things that are 242 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:41.839 corrupting. You hate evil, you hate sin, you hate vice. I 243 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:45.079 may have talked about this before, but you go back to the classical understanding 244 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:48.960 of beauty and you see these two competing forces of true beauty, which pulls 245 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:52.519 the affections, or which pulls the mind and pulls the heart, pulls the 246 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:56.960 soul up toward that which is true and good in lifegiving. On the other 247 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.119 side, you have seduction, which can have the appearance of beauty, it 248 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.480 has a very different result, leading you toward what is false, what is 249 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:07.359 deadly, and ultimately what is life consuming. We see this portrayed in the 250 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:11.519 difference between the muses and the sirens. On the surface that are very similar, 251 00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:15.160 but they have very different results. And so what we need to do 252 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:18.839 is to cultivate the right affections so that way we love the true manifestations of 253 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:23.279 beauty when they present themselves, and we have a hatred for the counterfeit. 254 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:30.440 But that goes beyond just reason, because, as Pascal says, the heart 255 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:36.559 has its motivations that reason doesn't understand. And I think that we all recognize 256 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:41.000 that that's true, and so the path to wisdom is about strengthening the hearts. 257 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:44.240 That way, we actually love the right things and we hate the wrong 258 00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:48.839 things, and that is the path of wisdom. Now, Lewis is going 259 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:53.960 to point out that Geyson Titus practically speaking, would agree with this, because 260 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:59.759 they want for us to adopt a certain way of being, a certain way 261 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:03.799 of using language, a certain way of approaching the world and approaching each other 262 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:07.359 and approaching our own moral sentiments. And so, in other words, they're 263 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:14.000 putting forward a good that we ought to favor and that we ought to pursue. 264 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:17.640 They're putting forward something for us to love, and then in contrast, 265 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.640 they're putting forward something for us to hate, which it would be their understanding, 266 00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:26.039 but misuse of language by treating value as something real and objective, and 267 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:30.640 so they are undermining the very worldview that they are espousing. This goes back 268 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:34.480 to Protagoras when Socrates says, protagonists, what do you do for a living? 269 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:38.720 Vertagoras says, I'm a teacher, and Socrates says, well, I 270 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:41.720 find this very puzzling, because as soon as you tell your students what they 271 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:45.119 believe is just as valid as what you believe. What more can you teach 272 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:51.519 them As soon as you spout out the view of the relativism, as soon 273 00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:56.240 as you say that there is no absolute truth, well, you're then attempting 274 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:59.680 to impose an absolute truth on other people. Is self defeating. It breaks 275 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:03.200 the law of non contradiction given to us by Aristotle, which is another way 276 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.039 of saying that it is quite literally nonsense. And so at the same time 277 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:12.359 they're trying to say that language of value is irrational, they are cutting out 278 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:17.279 the very reason for believing their own argument, which they believe to be valuable, 279 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:21.759 and so it's nonsense. It leads into avoid and this gets to some 280 00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:26.599 of the major themes we've been seeing throughout the Ransom series, especially regarding this 281 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:33.039 worldview of naturalism or scientism, where science is trying to play philosophy, and 282 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:40.960 in so doing it's trying to deal with value, is to deal with ethics, 283 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:45.599 which science has no way of engaging in. There's no scientific experiment you 284 00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:48.400 can run that will tell you what you ought to value, and so whenever 285 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:55.279 somebody tries to determine or to shape value through science, they're attempting to deal 286 00:21:55.319 --> 00:21:59.759 with something they don't have a category for understanding. They don't have a category 287 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:04.400 for dealing with. And so ultimately what they're doing is they are placing value 288 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:07.759 in a void, in an abyss, because there's no place for value within 289 00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:11.759 this scientific worldview, and when you place value in the abyss, what you 290 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:18.079 get is an abyss. And so it is a march into nothingness, just 291 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:23.640 as we saw from the Unman's discussion of Satan reaching into the void. Because 292 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:29.839 for Satan to reach forward through progress, as in progress away from the good 293 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:33.400 established by God, it is literally a reach into nothingness. And so that 294 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:37.279 is what Satan found, that is what the Unman found, that is what 295 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:41.880 the agents of the Nice are finding. That's what Mark will find for much 296 00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:45.599 of the story. It is a progress into the void, into emptiness, 297 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:51.839 into things that the scientific worldview, or the attempt at a scientific worldview, 298 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.279 can't deal with. And so what that means is going to be led by 299 00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:59.960 forces that it does not understand. And so, again just showing that he's 300 00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:03.839 not appealing to a particular culture, but really just to broad human experience, 301 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:07.480 he says that the Chinese also speak of a great thing, the greatest thing 302 00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:11.440 called the Tao. It is the reality beyond all predicates the abyss that was 303 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:14.799 before the Creator himself. It is nature, It is the way, the 304 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:18.440 road. It is the way in which the universe goes on, the way 305 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:23.400 in which things everlastingly emerge stilly and tranquility into space and time. This conception, 306 00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:26.920 in all its forms, Platonic, Aristilian, Stoic, Christian, and 307 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:33.640 Oriental alike, I shall henceforth refer to, for brevity simply as the Tao, 308 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:37.240 and so Gatting's getting to not a particular philosophy, not a particular ideology, 309 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:44.440 but simply universal human experience that all people have recognized through their reflection on 310 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:48.279 what it means to be human, and so operating under the Tao, operating 311 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:52.680 reference to natural law, he says that to say that the cataract is sublime 312 00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:57.559 means saying that our emotion of humility is appropriate or ordinate to the reality, 313 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:02.279 and thus to speak of something else besides the emotion, just as to say 314 00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:04.519 that a shoe fits is to speak not only the shoes, but a feat. 315 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.119 But this reference to something beyond the emotion is what Gayas and Titus exclude 316 00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:14.640 from every sentence containing a predicate of value, and so, operating under this 317 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:19.000 Tao model, we see that to say that the waterfall is sublime is to 318 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:23.440 make a statement about the waterfall, namely that a right relationship to the waterfall 319 00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:29.519 will instill a sense of the sublime in us as we participate in the beauty 320 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:33.599 that the waterfall expresses, the beauty and the power that it expresses, and 321 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:37.720 so there is a real value to beauty. Beauty is real. And here's 322 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:42.119 the thing. We all know that beauty is real. Even those who say 323 00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:48.759 it's an artificial construct don't really believe that. For example, I teach at 324 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:53.039 public university, and most of those students take some form of relativism and say 325 00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:57.319 that there is no beauty, it's all social construct or individual opinion, blah 326 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:02.559 blah blah. But I took them to the art museum and I had them 327 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:07.519 figure out which pieces of art speak to them, what do they find particularly 328 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.319 beautiful, And then which ones do they not find beautiful, what do they 329 00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:14.400 not find appealing, And almost all of them said that the most beautiful art, 330 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:19.319 or some kind of classical painting or even a Renaissance oil painting or something 331 00:25:19.400 --> 00:25:23.920 like that, something that had great depth, something that had great substance behind 332 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:29.000 it, something that obviously spoke to a transcendent reality. And then almost all 333 00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:33.880 of them recognize that the modern art, or really postmodern art, is a 334 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:38.799 scam, that there's nothing there, that it's just vapid, it's vacuous, 335 00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:42.880 and that's not something I had to convince them of. They recognize it reflexively 336 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:47.759 because we all know substance when we see it, and we know empty propaganda 337 00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:48.920 when we see it as well, at least most of us, as long 338 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.680 as we have our eyes at least partially open, and so we know that 339 00:25:52.720 --> 00:26:00.960 beauty is not entirely subjective. If somebody watches a glorious sunrise and comes out 340 00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:04.400 saying it was boring, well, then that actually reveals that there's something wrong 341 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:08.200 in them. Just as Lewis says in the Abolition of Man that he doesn't 342 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:14.559 particularly like being around kids, but he recognizes that that's a fault in him, 343 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:18.279 that there's something wrong in him because he doesn't have the preference that he 344 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:23.920 should for valuing children, for valuing being with children. And so when Lewis 345 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:32.960 says that the waterfall should instill within us a certain feeling when we are rightly 346 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:36.880 related to the waterfall and everything that it contains, what he's saying is that 347 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:41.960 there is this universal realm of values that we all inescapably are related to, 348 00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:47.160 and we know that we are related to it if we are willing to be 349 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:51.440 at all self conscious of our experience in the world. These are things that 350 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:56.359 you can't avoid entirely. And this is what we see in Romans one as 351 00:26:56.359 --> 00:27:00.119 well, where Paul says that as God's image bear living in God's creation that 352 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.640 testifies to who he is, we all can't help but to know the truth, 353 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:07.839 even though we naturally suppress it in or I guess I should say we 354 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:14.559 unnaturally suppress it in unbelief, and in so doing, foolish hearts become darkened 355 00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:18.240 and we're given over to foolish and futile thinking. Because we are contradicting the 356 00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:23.160 most fundamental reality that we cannot ever fully escape, and because we're not able 357 00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:30.680 to recognize value as a legitimate point of reference for our language, we can't 358 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:36.119 even meaningfully talk about what we should be as humans. We can't really talk 359 00:27:36.119 --> 00:27:41.599 about what human nature is. We can't meaningfully talk about the idea of progress, 360 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:48.200 because progress has this idea of moving from what is less valuable to what 361 00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:52.839 is more valuable. From what is worse to what is better. But if 362 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:59.680 we aren't able to talk meaningfully about values I value isn't real beyond our emotional 363 00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:03.079 sense, then we have no realm to talk about progress. We can't even 364 00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:07.319 talk about why we should use the right kind of language, right we should 365 00:28:07.400 --> 00:28:10.720 value the kind of language that guys and titans are giving to us. So 366 00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:15.400 again, this is a philosophy that cuts itself off at the feet, and 367 00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:22.599 the idea of education itself doesn't really make sense with this philosophy, just like 368 00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:26.279 when Divine says that the nice is aiming to make it a more efficient man, 369 00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:32.039 despite the fact that they reject ideals, and so the question remains what 370 00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:34.920 man's can be more efficient at doing what? At being what? And that's 371 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:38.680 something that they simply can't answer, which again leads us into progress into the 372 00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:44.079 void, and thus Lewis goes on. Hence, the educational problem is wholly 373 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:47.960 different according as you stand within or without the Tao. For those within, 374 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:52.720 the task is to train in the pupil those responses which are in themselves appropriate, 375 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:56.880 whether anyone's making them or not, and in making which the very nature 376 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:00.559 of man consists. Those without, if they are logical must regard all sentiments 377 00:29:00.599 --> 00:29:04.880 as equally non rational, as mere miss between us and the real objects. 378 00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:08.839 As a result, they must either decide to remove all sentiments as far as 379 00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:14.640 possible from the people's mind, or else to encourage some sentiments for reasons that 380 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:18.680 have nothing to do with their intrinsic justness or ordinancy. The latter course involves 381 00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:23.039 them in the questionable process of creating in others, by suggestion or incantation, 382 00:29:23.559 --> 00:29:29.799 a mirage which their own reason has successfully dissipated. And so again, they're 383 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:34.759 trying to instill certain values in other people that don't have any more internal justification 384 00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:38.279 than the values that they claim to be debunking. And so what they're doing 385 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:45.359 in the name of reason is actually something very irrational. They're simply uttering forth 386 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:48.480 what they want to see manifested in the world, with no clear root in 387 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:52.119 nature, no clear root in reason. And so this is why he says 388 00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:57.640 that ultimately what they're doing is a questionable process of creating in others, by 389 00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:03.759 suggestion or incantation, a mirage which their own reason has successfully dissipated. And 390 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:08.359 so this brings them into the realm of magic. And we've already seen this 391 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:12.839 in Screwtape. Lewis talks about this more in the Abolition of Man. This 392 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:19.759 idea that this modern scientific philosophy and magic sorcery has the same root in a 393 00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:26.119 desire to dominate the world, not to nurture the world, not to cultivate 394 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:30.599 the world, not to help the world be more itself, like we see 395 00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:33.720 in the Company of Saint Anne's for example, right, they helped Jane become 396 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:36.920 more of herself. No, Instead, what we see is a desire to 397 00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:44.400 simply put forth words that dominate, words that manifest realities. What we see 398 00:30:44.519 --> 00:30:47.960 is magic, and I mean, this is what the nice does. This 399 00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:53.000 is what is happening under the worldview of scientism, under naturalism, and this 400 00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:59.240 is what we should see. Every time some famous scientists makes some prescription for 401 00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:03.359 how we shall live or how society should be directed on scientific grounds. Whenever 402 00:31:03.400 --> 00:31:11.440 they start giving us shoulds in the name of science, they're doing something non 403 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:15.960 scientific. They're doing something unreasonable. They are uttering an incantation. And of 404 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.160 course, from their worldview, there's nothing wrong with this, because there's no 405 00:31:19.839 --> 00:31:23.759 virtue that can stand against them in judgment. There's no substance. They have 406 00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:27.519 no solid ground to stand on. They are floating and a void, and 407 00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:32.680 will avoid doesn't cast judgment. And that's because the void is the judgment. 408 00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:36.759 And so the operation of the green Book and its kind is to produce what 409 00:31:36.839 --> 00:31:41.160 may be called men without chess. It is an outrage that they should be 410 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:45.480 commonly spoken of as intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that he 411 00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:49.599 who attacks them attacks intelligence. It is not so. They are not distinguished 412 00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:53.640 from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth, nor any virtual ardor 413 00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:59.039 to pursue her. Indeed, it would be strange if they were a persevering 414 00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:02.519 devotion to truth. A nice sense of intellectual honor cannot be long maintained without 415 00:32:02.519 --> 00:32:06.920 the aid of a sentiment which Gaius and Titus could debunk as easily as any 416 00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:10.119 other. It is not excess a thought, but defect of fertile and generous 417 00:32:10.119 --> 00:32:14.680 emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary. 418 00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:19.240 It is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so. And 419 00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:22.960 all the time, such as the tragic comedy of our situation, we continue 420 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:28.359 to claimor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open 421 00:32:28.440 --> 00:32:32.880 periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more dry or 422 00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:39.920 dynamism or self sacrifice or creativity. Side note this week you think of screw 423 00:32:39.960 --> 00:32:45.000 Tape when he says that that Wormtong shouldn't make his patient think that materialism is 424 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:47.519 true, or you shouldn't teach him any kind of doctrine, even the wrong 425 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:52.319 doctrine. What he needs to do is convince him that materialism is courageous or 426 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:59.119 progressive. Same thing going on here, in a sort of ghastly simplicity. 427 00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:02.880 We remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chess and 428 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:07.519 expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to 429 00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:15.079 find traders in our midst We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. And 430 00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:19.119 that is, I think a powerful way to end this section. It's a 431 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:24.519 powerful rebuke to this community that pushes progress on us, that pushes justice, 432 00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:29.960 that pushes the importance of man and of community and whatever else well at the 433 00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:34.640 same time destroying any reason to pursue any of these things. And so we 434 00:33:34.680 --> 00:33:38.119 get reason without the root, which is not reason at all. We get 435 00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:44.920 ultimately a descent into hell. While it is being dressed up in a pursuit 436 00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:49.359 of heaven on earth. All right, next we have the way, and 437 00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:54.519 at least as far as a high level presentation goes, we're dealing with some 438 00:33:54.599 --> 00:33:57.960 of the same themes here, and so this is going to go fairly quickly. 439 00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:00.880 Now, Lewis says that the practical result of education in the spirit of 440 00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:06.559 the Green Book must be the destruction of the society which accepts it. And 441 00:34:06.599 --> 00:34:12.440 so he continues to point out the fact that this way of thinking uproots the 442 00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:19.760 very foundation of thinking that it requires. And so they want to discount all 443 00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:23.320 values as being real well at the same time telling us how we should act, 444 00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:27.760 how we should live, or at the very least, how we should 445 00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:31.599 use language. But whenever you're talking about should or should not, you are 446 00:34:31.800 --> 00:34:37.719 dealing with the domain of value. And so to even put forth any kind 447 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:42.440 of education, put forth anything as that which ought to be believed, Well, 448 00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:47.119 now you're appealing to a transcendent value, the same transcendent value that you 449 00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:52.880 are discounting, And so it's self contradictory. Everything that leads to a good 450 00:34:52.920 --> 00:35:00.480 citizen, everything that leads to a good society, gets discounted as essentially meaningless, 451 00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:04.039 being void of real content. But that's no way to build a society. 452 00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:07.320 It's no way to build a community. It's no way to even build 453 00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:13.079 an individual life as one person being a community of persons living across time. 454 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:17.960 And so this is just a way of living that ultimately is a movement into 455 00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:22.800 the void. And it continues to point out this self refuting tendency of this 456 00:35:22.840 --> 00:35:27.480 philosophy, as he says, however subjective they may be about some traditional values, 457 00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:30.800 guys and Titis have shown by the very act of writing the Green Book 458 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:35.199 that there must be some other values about which they are not subjective at all. 459 00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:38.239 They write in order to produce certain states of mind in the rising generation, 460 00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:43.360 if not because they think those states of mind intrinsically just or good, 461 00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:47.000 get certainly because they think them to be the means to some state of society 462 00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:52.079 which they regard as desirable. They could be forced by argument to answer the 463 00:35:52.119 --> 00:36:00.119 question necessary for what progressing towards what affecting? What? This is the question 464 00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:05.559 I raised when Divine says that he's trying to make a more efficient man, 465 00:36:05.639 --> 00:36:09.679 and the question is efficient for what? Lewis continues. In the last resort, 466 00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:13.679 they would have to admit that some state of affairs was, in their 467 00:36:13.719 --> 00:36:16.519 opinion good for its own sake. And this time they could not maintain that 468 00:36:16.599 --> 00:36:21.719 good simply describe their own emotion about it. For the whole purpose of their 469 00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:24.559 book is so to condition the young reader that he will share their approval. 470 00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:30.719 And this would be either a fool's or a villain's undertaking unless they held their 471 00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:37.039 approval was in some way valid or correct. And so you can't at the 472 00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:40.639 same time undermine value and then say that your philosophy is that which ought to 473 00:36:40.679 --> 00:36:45.960 be believed, because in so doing you are putting forth some kind of value, 474 00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:50.679 something that you believe people should believe. And so this kind of radical 475 00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:54.920 subjectivity, this kind of radical relativism, it is dead upon arrival. It 476 00:36:54.960 --> 00:37:00.639 is, as Chesterton says, an orthodoxy, reason without root, which is 477 00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:05.960 how you get madness. And so these people who are using the language of 478 00:37:06.039 --> 00:37:10.159 reason, right, they set themselves up as intellectuals, as rationalists. Well, 479 00:37:10.199 --> 00:37:15.480 actually what they're doing is very unrational or irrational rather, because they are 480 00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:22.760 destroying the very foundations of reason, because reason demands that we appeal to the 481 00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:27.199 reality of value, because to say that we should act, we should think 482 00:37:27.239 --> 00:37:30.320 in a certain way, we should believe a certain set of doctrines. Well, 483 00:37:30.360 --> 00:37:35.119 whenever we make those kinds of claims, we're saying that some things are 484 00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:39.679 intrinsically more valuable than others, which means value is real. And in the 485 00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:46.280 end, where this philosophy leads is brutality to compulsion. It's going to rely 486 00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:51.000 on the state. And I mean when thinking about how the nice is this 487 00:37:51.159 --> 00:37:55.320 governmental agency that's trying to use the power of the state in order to enact 488 00:37:55.440 --> 00:38:00.960 its progressive philosophy on the populace, because that's the only thing it can do 489 00:38:01.079 --> 00:38:05.800 because it doesn't have a goodness on its side, it doesn't have virtue on 490 00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:08.840 its side. All it has is power. And so it's no wonder that 491 00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:15.760 Lewis is using this philosophy as the driving force of his dystopian speculations. He 492 00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:24.280 demonstrating the natural outworking of the ideas that have a pretty mainstream platform in our 493 00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:30.119 world today, this idea that there is no real value, that the only 494 00:38:30.239 --> 00:38:35.079 things that really exist and can be meaningfully discussed are material empirical realities, and 495 00:38:35.079 --> 00:38:39.480 that everything metaphysical is off the table as a legitimate reference point for language. 496 00:38:39.719 --> 00:38:45.400 And so this just falls apart altogether, because without metaphysics, all of our 497 00:38:45.400 --> 00:38:50.400 communication falls apart, as we seek to tell others what ought to be believed 498 00:38:50.480 --> 00:38:54.159 right. Otherwise, we wouldn't actually be using language unless we have that presupposition 499 00:38:54.239 --> 00:38:58.880 in play. And so as soon as you destroy metaphysics, you really destroy 500 00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:02.280 language altogether. And more on this, Lewis says, in actual fact, 501 00:39:02.519 --> 00:39:07.400 Guys and Titus will be found to hold with complete uncritical dogmatism the whole system 502 00:39:07.400 --> 00:39:12.239 of values which happen to be in vogue among moderately educated young men of the 503 00:39:12.239 --> 00:39:15.960 professional classes during the period between the two wars. Their skepticism about values is 504 00:39:15.960 --> 00:39:21.159 on the surface, it is for use on other people's values about the values 505 00:39:21.199 --> 00:39:24.920 current in their own set. They are not nearly skeptical enough, and so 506 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:30.519 the Titus crowd are very likely going to say that those who hold to a 507 00:39:30.519 --> 00:39:35.440 traditional understanding of values as embedded in reality and understood through reason, which would 508 00:39:35.480 --> 00:39:39.280 be most people across time and space, as Lewis is already demonstrated, from 509 00:39:39.480 --> 00:39:45.079 ancient China to Greece to Rome and beyond. You know, we've all recognized 510 00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:47.760 that there is something like human nature, that there are better and worse ways 511 00:39:47.760 --> 00:39:51.559 to live, and that the better that we live, the more free we 512 00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:53.280 are. Well, Guys and Titus are going to look at that and say 513 00:39:53.320 --> 00:39:58.199 that, Okay, this whole idea of the good is just sort of socially 514 00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:01.719 constructed and it's really meaningless when you get down to the actual content of language. 515 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:06.639 But really, what they're doing, as we've already seen, is they're 516 00:40:06.679 --> 00:40:12.280 simply protecting their particular set of values without criticism, without any kind of skepticism. 517 00:40:12.639 --> 00:40:19.039 And then they are saying that they're trying to make man free by undermining 518 00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:23.039 all of the values, all of the idea of genuine progress that would actually 519 00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:27.559 allow men to be free. Because if Guys and Titus are correct, and 520 00:40:27.559 --> 00:40:30.360 we can't meaningfully talk about value, then we can't even talk about the value 521 00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:35.800 of freedom. And this is when you get to Screwtape. Especially in Screwtape 522 00:40:35.800 --> 00:40:39.800 proposes to Toast when he wants to encourage talk of democracy, but at the 523 00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:45.239 same time, he wants to empty the word democracy of any kind of meaning. 524 00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:52.880 He wants to empty of any kind of reasonable understanding of freedom, any 525 00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:57.079 kind of reasonable understanding of equality. And what he wants us to do is 526 00:40:57.119 --> 00:41:01.159 empty these of any kind of legitimate values and just make them sounding points, 527 00:41:01.719 --> 00:41:08.360 so that the progressive democratic philosophy just sounds courageous, it sounds emboldening, it's 528 00:41:09.159 --> 00:41:13.840 stunning and brave, as we might say today. But what we never want 529 00:41:13.880 --> 00:41:16.920 to worry about are actual discussions about what is true and what is false. 530 00:41:16.960 --> 00:41:20.280 All we want to know is what is courageous, what is progressive, what 531 00:41:20.360 --> 00:41:22.559 is moving us forward? And we could certainly hear some of Weston in this, 532 00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:27.719 all right, moving on a great many of those who debunk traditional, 533 00:41:28.119 --> 00:41:30.880 as they would say, sentimental values have in the background values of their own 534 00:41:30.920 --> 00:41:35.400 which they believe to be immune from the debunking process. They claim to be 535 00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:38.880 cutting away the parasitic growth of emotion, religious sanction, and inherited taboos in 536 00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:44.760 order that real or basic values may emerge. And again same thing. They 537 00:41:44.800 --> 00:41:50.239 are putting forth a certain set of values while trying to debunk value as such. 538 00:41:50.440 --> 00:41:52.039 And so really, I mean, in the end, what they have 539 00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:54.960 here is a set of values that can't be analyzed, that can't be assessed, 540 00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:00.559 and that they're trying to propagate through compulsion while gaslighting everyone else into thinking 541 00:42:00.559 --> 00:42:04.719 that they're not doing something metaphysical. And at this point, I'm really repeating 542 00:42:04.719 --> 00:42:07.440 a lot of these same ideas, and so I'm going to end with I 543 00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:13.239 think is a pretty significant couple of passages here from the way in which Lewis 544 00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:17.199 is taking the mindset, taking the perspective of his opponents, and so with 545 00:42:17.239 --> 00:42:21.280 that in mind, he says, how can the modern mind be expected to 546 00:42:21.320 --> 00:42:24.920 embrace? The conclusion we have reached This tow which it seems we must treat 547 00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:30.239 as an absolute is simply a phenomenon like any other, the reflection upon the 548 00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:32.960 minds of our ancestors, of the agricultural rhythm in which they lived, or 549 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:37.880 even their physiology. We know already in principle how such things are produced. 550 00:42:38.039 --> 00:42:42.559 Soon we shall know in detail. Eventually we shall be able to produce them 551 00:42:42.599 --> 00:42:45.960 at will. Of course, while we did not know how minds were made, 552 00:42:45.119 --> 00:42:49.360 we accepted this mental furniture as a datum, even as a master. 553 00:42:49.840 --> 00:42:53.199 But many things in nature which were once our masters have become our servants. 554 00:42:53.639 --> 00:42:59.920 Why not this? Why must our conquest of nature stop short in stupid reverence 555 00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:04.800 before this final and toughest bit of nature, which has hitherto been called the 556 00:43:04.920 --> 00:43:08.920 conscience of man? And we see a lot of this kind of thinking alive 557 00:43:09.119 --> 00:43:16.440 today as we move into increased integration of AI, cybernetics, neuralink and all 558 00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:21.400 that. I mean. Obviously some good can come out of these efforts, 559 00:43:21.719 --> 00:43:25.159 but we have to recognize the forces that are at play here. What exactly 560 00:43:25.239 --> 00:43:29.039 is it that we are trying to do? Are we trying to become more 561 00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:32.880 enchanted? Are we trying to help man more fully reach his form? Are 562 00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:37.679 we trying to bring out of nature that which was always there? Or are 563 00:43:37.679 --> 00:43:43.760 we trying to take charge of nature? Does progress simply equal what comes next? 564 00:43:44.199 --> 00:43:45.960 And if that's the case, then we are setting ourselves up for a 565 00:43:46.039 --> 00:43:52.239 healthscape when we talk about what progress means without any kind of tay loss, 566 00:43:52.239 --> 00:43:54.920 without any kind of formal goal in mind. And then, finally, this 567 00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:59.760 should really hit home as we consider what we've already seen from that hideous strength 568 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:06.760 well as west End and this whole approach of scientism and progressivism and that sort 569 00:44:06.800 --> 00:44:09.559 of thing. He says, you threaten us with some obscure disaster if we 570 00:44:09.599 --> 00:44:13.880 step outside it. That is the Tao and the natural law. But we 571 00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:17.239 have been threatened that way by obscurantists at every step in our advance, and 572 00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:21.800 each time the threat has proved false. You say we shall have no values 573 00:44:21.800 --> 00:44:23.960 at all. If we step outside the tow very well, we shall probably 574 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:28.599 find that we can get on quite comfortably without them. Let us regard all 575 00:44:28.639 --> 00:44:32.559 ideas of what we ought to do simply as an interesting psychological survival. Let 576 00:44:32.679 --> 00:44:37.199 us step right out of all that and start doing what we like. Let 577 00:44:37.320 --> 00:44:40.159 Us decide for ourselves what man is to be, and make him into that, 578 00:44:40.519 --> 00:44:44.880 not on any ground of imagined value, but because we want him to 579 00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:50.199 be such. Having mastered our environment, let us now master ourselves and choose 580 00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:59.320 our own destiny. And reading that should send shivers down your spine, because, 581 00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:02.519 as he is going to go on to say in this book, really 582 00:45:02.519 --> 00:45:07.519 what this comes down to is not the freedom of all men. What it 583 00:45:07.519 --> 00:45:10.920 comes down to is a select few men who happen to have power, who 584 00:45:10.960 --> 00:45:16.079 are able to exert their ideas of what they want to be on the masses. 585 00:45:16.199 --> 00:45:22.079 This is the movement toward fascism. This is the movement toward tyranny of 586 00:45:22.119 --> 00:45:25.079 some kind or another. As you have certain people on the top who are 587 00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:30.000 simply deciding what values they are going to compel on the world around them, 588 00:45:30.280 --> 00:45:36.760 and ultimately this has to come down to compulsion, because by its own philosophy, 589 00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:39.760 it can't use reason to appeal to value as to how we should live, 590 00:45:39.800 --> 00:45:44.760 how we should act. All we have is the people who have the 591 00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:49.480 power to decide for themselves what they want man to be and by extent, 592 00:45:49.519 --> 00:45:52.039 what they don't want man to be, and so they're going to use the 593 00:45:52.039 --> 00:46:00.000 forces of their disposal in order to in order to compel influence on those around 594 00:46:00.239 --> 00:46:04.480 them. We see this in the nice I think we see this stream of 595 00:46:04.519 --> 00:46:07.119 thought in a lot of elements of our culture today when you look at some 596 00:46:07.119 --> 00:46:12.800 of the conversations taking place. Because again, if you don't believe in value 597 00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:17.119 as something that you can meaningfully reference as a common ground between men, then 598 00:46:17.199 --> 00:46:22.159 all you have is brutalism. All you have is survival of the fittest. 599 00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:30.639 All you have is force. And as we've already seen through Mark, it 600 00:46:30.760 --> 00:46:37.559 is this kind of courageous progressivism that can lead nice men to do very bad 601 00:46:37.639 --> 00:46:42.159 things. And I guess with that warning we'll go ahead and leave off, 602 00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:45.719 and the beginning of next week we will cover the next two essays in the 603 00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:53.199 Abolition of Men. Until next time, God speed, Thank you for listening. 604 00:46:53.199 --> 00:46:55.440 I hope that you found that helpful, And if you have never read 605 00:46:55.480 --> 00:46:59.599 The Abolition of Man, I certainly recommend that you pick that up and read 606 00:46:59.639 --> 00:47:02.559 it. I think that it is just so important for understanding what's going on 607 00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:07.280 around us culturally, speaking, philosophically, educationally. I think that CS. 608 00:47:07.400 --> 00:47:13.559 Lewis helps us to root ourselves in deeper veins of thought. He helps us 609 00:47:13.559 --> 00:47:16.280 to root ourselves in reason, He helps to root ourselves in goodness. He 610 00:47:16.320 --> 00:47:22.519 gives us a foundation for understanding and engaging with beauty, so many things that 611 00:47:22.840 --> 00:47:29.280 have been just emptied out and undermined in pretty significant ways in our cultural setting 612 00:47:29.360 --> 00:47:31.800 right now and again, you are more than welcome to jump into the philosophy 613 00:47:31.840 --> 00:47:34.719 and fiction of C. S. Lewis. Course. Just click on the 614 00:47:34.760 --> 00:47:37.320 link below and make sure you use the Code podcast for fifty percent off enrollment. 615 00:47:37.679 --> 00:47:40.400 But before we go, I do want to thank all of my patrons, 616 00:47:40.480 --> 00:47:44.079 those of you who have stuck with me during a little bit of a 617 00:47:44.119 --> 00:47:46.000 dry season, which again I hope will get a little rain in the very 618 00:47:46.039 --> 00:47:50.199 near future. But I do want to thank all my patrons who are at 619 00:47:50.199 --> 00:47:53.400 the ten dollars a month year and higher and so many things to Mark, 620 00:47:53.559 --> 00:47:59.039 Aaron, Jeff Paul Aaron, Andrew Brandon, Christopher, Emmy, Ian, 621 00:47:59.280 --> 00:48:04.800 Jeremiah, Jocelyn, Joshua Landon, Matthew Steele, and William as well as 622 00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:07.519 all of my five dollars months to her patrons as well. 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