What is the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1943 book about the dangers of abolishing objective values?

The Abolition of Man is C.S. Lewis’s 1943 book about the dangers of abolishing objective values.

The work developed from three lectures Lewis delivered at the University of Durham in February 1943. He criticized educational approaches that treated moral judgments as merely subjective emotional reactions. Lewis argued that human reasoning and education depend on recognizing genuine values that are not created solely by personal preference.

The book is organized into three chapters: “Men Without Chests,” “The Way,” and “The Abolition of Man.” Lewis uses the term “the Tao” for a cross-cultural set of basic moral principles, while also discussing how technological power could be used to reshape humanity.

The title does not mean the immediate physical extinction of people. It refers to the possible loss of human nature, moral agency, and inherited standards if people gain power without preserving the values that guide its use. That distinction is central to the book’s argument.