Plain and obvious truth. And like most plain and obvious truth, man has an enormous talent to hand-wave it away. ( )

http://www.skepticalchristian.com/br_... ( )

I didn't think it was an easy read. But the main point was drove home in the last lecture when he said, "You cannot go on seeing through things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. . . . If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through all things is the same as not to see.”
The whole point about seeing something is because there is an object that can be seen. If everything is all relative, that very statement itself is a belief. By that statement, you are "seeing" something. Even an atheist believes in "there is no god." ( )

I am constantly amazed at how our society continually ignores the so-obvious truth. Lewis clearly addresses the modern problem. Perhaps the problem isn't unique to these times but, certainly, our way is different than any time before us. Past societies recognized sin and selfishness and regretted them. We recognize sin and selfishness and embrace them. (Contrary to what some may say, we don't ignore them. Instead, we rejoice in them.) ( )

I bought this with a first-aid purchase. Do people really need to be reading this? I remind myself that 3 advanced nations have experienced major terrorist attacks in the past 4 years and New Orleans is now underwater from a natural disaster. This is a handy reference that can be tucked away just in case. ( )

One of the most important books of the 20th century. Was selected by Mortimer Adler as a supplemental, "Great Books of the Western World." ( )

http://www.wordandspirit.co.uk/blog/i... ( )

I find this a challenging and helpful book. I love the concept "Men without chests" where Lewis writes of castrating me and then bidding them to be fruitful, in the context of removing our foundations for morality and then insisting that we act morally - this seems to be at the heart of many of the issues that we face at the start of the 21st century. ( )

Not at all what I have expected, mainly because this book is no apology for Christianity, but rather for the more numinous and vague existence of a generally common morality. That being said, Lewis is quite convincing that morality (the Tao is his term) is more than human conventions, and he is also convincing that it matters, and matters very much. ( )

http://jkpstrange.blogspot.com/2006/0... http://jkpstrange.blogspot.com/2006/07/unfortunately-fulfilled-prophecy-part_07.html, http://jkpstrange.blogspot.com/2006/0... ( )

The Abolition of Man is a simply splendid work, a juicy pamphlet with all the concentration of thought and provocative conclusions that Lewis can produce. A serious look at what was fundamentally wrong with the education of his day, this critique is still incredibly pertinent now. Lewis tackles the very basic issue of absolute values, employing logical arguments with great success to show just how untenable, desperate, and morally degrading the views of relativists are. This is an excellent work that any Christian should read, and to which I would readily refer a skeptic. Lewis' literary, philosophical, and theological strengths are apparent in this fine work. Highly recommended. ( )

This book is a very brief and powerful defense of a philosophical concept known as Natural Law.

This book takes as its point of departure some philosophical ideas embedded in a British high-school textbook of Grammar or Literature. The ideas discussed in the beginning appear to derive from logical positivism, and have the character of statements made by A. J. Ayer, one of the members of the Vienna Circle, the original society of logical positivists.

The argument Lewis uses against these ideas, and against moral relativism appear to derive from Aristottle's Nicomachen Ethics.

He makes the point that science should endevour to keep insights from introspection when trying to understand the instincts of animals. I think that we do see some hint of this in some writings of Carl Sagan, particularly in one place where he asks whether when a moth is overcome by phermones whether he falls a little in love with the female moth. Though Sagan's application of this kind of thought is inconsistent.

Lewis also asks that scientists keep in mind that what is produced by analysis is an abstraction and that this abstraction must always be refined. I believe that this is explicitly understood in current understandings of scientific epistemology.

The ideas presented here particularly those about the Natural Law are very similar to those introduced in the opening chapters of Mere Christianity. Also in Mere Christianity he mentions the similarities between moral codes of various countries and eras and mentions an appendix that collects some examples of this. That appendix is included in this book.

In That Hideous Strength, Lewis says that it is a fictional exploration of ideas that are presented straightforwardly in this book.

One might also compare A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. ( )

Writing immediately after WWII, Lewis expresses his observations and concerns about the future of education, specifically the secularization of education. A half century later, it is interesting to see how much or how little of his fears came to pass. Similarly, several of his points are still very much in the forefront of the culture wars in the United States today. ( )

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm... ( )