Which 1943 C.S. Lewis book argues that education should cultivate the inner character?

The Abolition of Man is the 1943 C.S. Lewis book that argues education should cultivate the inner character rather than merely train students to produce practical results. It originated as a series of lectures at the University of Durham.

Lewis’s argument focuses on moral formation, objective value, and the danger of treating emotions as the only basis for judgment. He criticizes an approach to education that dismisses traditional moral responses as subjective conditioning. In his discussion, he uses “the Tao” to describe a set of basic moral principles shared across cultures.

The book is not a novel and is not primarily a general history of education. It is a compact work of philosophical and cultural criticism, often read alongside Lewis’s Christian apologetics and literary scholarship.

The Discarded Image is Lewis’s study of the medieval and Renaissance worldview, while English Literature in the Sixteenth Century is a major scholarly history. Neither addresses the educational argument associated with The Abolition of Man.