The Abolition of Man as Handbook for Education

Lewis describes how progressive undid classical education, but from that we can learn how to recover it

Lewis's Abolition of Man is a manual for how education was changed from a classical/medieval model to a progressive model. It is also, therefore, a manual for how to recover the classical/medieval model.

The first step in the Abolition of Man for undermining classical/medieval principles and replacing them with progressive ideas is the work of the "Debunker." The debunker debunks by drawing a line between facts and opinions. There are objective statements: that is a waterfall. And there are subjective statements: the waterfall is sublime or beautiful or pretty. This is true, kind of. But not completely. Lewis's argument (and Traherne's, whom he quotes) is that the waterfall actually is sublime, is beautiful, and to say so is not to express an opinion grounded in mere personal judgment, but to express an opinion that is aligned with reality.

The waterfall, furthermore, deserves this judgment. To express its sublimity is to express an opinion in agreement with what is objectively true about it. The debunkers don't want us making that connection. They debunk by separating opinion from fact. Once the debunkers make this distinction, their next step is lead us to subtly change how we value these statements. The debunked person can now dismiss opinions as mere personal judgments. Waterfalls cannot be sublime, they can only be personally judged as sublime. The debunked no longer see values of beauty or goodness in objects. And the entire "Tao," the system of values of what is beautiful, good, and true, is reduced to a system dependent on personal judgments. It has no value for people generally, but only for those who judge it to.

Once the debunker has completed his task, the "Innovator" comes on the scene. The innovator innovates by taking one element from the "Tao" and making it the whole of the "new Tao." This is precisely what is meant by an ideology. An ideology is a part that becomes the whole. The innovator might convince the world that "environmentalism," for example, is the new Tao. Anything and everything gets evaluated in its relationship to environmental causes (rather than the actual Tao). It rules all. It decides whether we are morally good or bad, etc. At some point, different innovators propose and enforce, to some extent, competing "new Taos." Environmentalism competes with Feminism, Gender Identity, Racism, Atheism, Social Justice, poverty, war on drugs, etc. Ideologies demand our allegiance. The community, previously fragmented by differing opinions (objective vs. subjective), becomes even more fragmented by differing allegiances to the various ideologies. Something is needed to re-"unite" its members.

In steps the "Conditioner." The conditioner conditions by appealing to our animal nature, our appetites. He needs no notion of right or wrong, good or bad, but only what is pleasing. His primary tool is advertising. The community "unites" not around the Tao, nor does the community "unite" around an ideology. Instead, it unites around a shared desire for the newest iPhone or a Big Mac or a Tesla or whatever comfort or pleasure the conditioner is conditioning it towards.

The Abolition of Man begins with the debunker, who disabuses us of our love for beauty. He takes away our chest (the will) by taking away our motivation to do something simply because it is beautiful. The Abolition of Man continues with the innovator, who disabuses us of our love for the good. He takes away the "good" as it is embodied (however poorly) in the Tao, and he replaces it with an ideology, his own version of a reduced "good." The Abolition of Man concludes with the conditioner, who disabuses us of our love for the true, which he does by taking away any sense of good or bad, right or wrong, true or false, and replacing it only with the fulfillment of our animalistic desires for pleasure and comfort.

The classical education renewal senses this loss of Truth (and only to a lesser extent the loss of the beautiful and the good), and it responds.

For the most part, it fights against the loss of truth by declaring the Truth, proclaiming the Truth to others: primarily to its teachers, families, and students. But the Truth wasn't lost to us by a direct assault against it. It wasn't an attack on truth that abolished man. It was an attack on Beauty. To recover, to un-abolish, man, we must first recover Beauty. And this too is seen in Lewis's work. Insofar as the Abolition of Man is a manual for how the progressive model replaced the classical one, it is also a manual for how to recover the classical model.

Classical education must begin by reestablishing that Beauty is an objective reality. The waterfall IS sublime, I don't just have personal opinions about its sublimity. We must teach our students to recognize that something is indeed beautiful and that's why we must call it so. But more than just call it so, I must therefore interact with it as such. Beauty demands a response from me. I must respond appropriately to the Beauty I encounter, in the waterfall, in the painting, in the story, in the person.

Having reestablished the truth of what Beauty is and of what it demands of me, I will once again be able to see the value of the full Tao, and see that each ideology is a part of the Tao and that it must maintain its appropriate place within the Tao. I will also cultivate a loyalty, an allegiance, to the Tao and the good it represents because of my love for the Beauty that I can now perceive in it. For Beauty begets love, which brings with it a loyalty and a jealousy for it. Having learned to love Beauty and to pursue Goodness, I will no longer be distracted by my appetites and desires. Promises of pleasure and comfort will hold no sway over my desire for the truly beautiful and the truly good. I will now truly be able to desire, perceive, and know the True. And I will become a pursuer and defender of the True. By this, classical education can restore the Truth to its rightful place.

But it cannot shortcut it by skipping Beauty or the Good. I repeat, we cannot shortcut our way to being ardent defenders and loyalists the True by skipping over a love for Beauty and a love for the Good.