The Abolition of Man is C.S. Lewis’s 1943 book arguing that moral judgment cannot be reduced to changing personal preference.
The book grew out of three lectures Lewis delivered at the University of Durham in February 1943. He criticizes an approach to education that treats value statements as nothing more than expressions of emotion. Against that view, he defends objective value and a shared moral order, which he calls the Tao.
Lewis argues that removing objective standards does not make humanity freer or more rational. Instead, it leaves people vulnerable to manipulation by those who control technology and social power. The title refers to the possibility that technological mastery, detached from moral formation, could diminish rather than improve human nature.
The book is frequently confused with Mere Christianity, which presents a more accessible case for Christian belief, or The Discarded Image, Lewis’s later study of medieval cosmology. The Abolition of Man is specifically a short philosophical critique of moral subjectivism and education.