Which 1943 C.S. Lewis book argues that modern education should cultivate objective value and traditional virtue?

The Abolition of Man is the 1943 C.S. Lewis book arguing that education should cultivate objective value and traditional virtue.

The work began as three lectures delivered at the University of Durham in February 1943. Lewis criticizes an approach to education that treats moral judgments as nothing more than subjective feelings. He argues that human beings need training in appropriate responses to reality, a moral order he calls the Tao.

The book has three chapters: “Men Without Chests,” “The Way,” and “The Abolition of Man.” Lewis’s central concern is not opposition to science itself. Instead, he warns that technological power detached from moral limits could allow some human beings to reshape or control others.

The title can be misleading. Lewis is not predicting the immediate disappearance of humanity. His “abolition” refers to the loss of human nature and moral agency when education and technology sever people from objective value.