Which C.S. Lewis book argues that eliminating traditional moral values would damage humanity?

The Abolition of Man argues that eliminating traditional moral values would damage humanity.

C.S. Lewis published the work in 1943 after delivering the Riddell Memorial Lectures at the University of Durham in February of that year. The book is a compact work of moral and educational criticism rather than a novel or a conventional Christian autobiography.

Lewis responds to approaches that, in his view, treated value judgments as merely subjective emotional reactions. He defends the existence of objective moral principles, which he calls the Tao, while drawing examples from several cultural and religious traditions. He argues that education should cultivate properly ordered human responses, not simply train technical skills or manipulate feelings.

The final section imagines the consequences of using science and technology to reshape humanity without moral limits. The title does not mean that Lewis wanted to abolish human beings; it names the danger that people could lose the qualities that make them fully human. The book is often discussed alongside his later criticism of scientism and technocratic power.