Which C.S. Lewis book presents the idea of the “Tao” as universal moral law?

The Abolition of Man presents C.S. Lewis’s idea of the “Tao” as a universal moral law.

The Abolition of Man began as three lectures delivered at Durham University in 1943 and was published as a book the same year. Lewis used “the Tao” as a broad term for the traditional moral principles shared across different cultures and religious traditions. He argued that education should cultivate objective values rather than reduce moral judgments to mere personal preference.

The book is not a work of Taoist religious instruction. Lewis deliberately used the Chinese term as a shorthand for a cross-cultural natural law. Its three chapters are “Men Without Chests,” “The Way,” and “The Abolition of Man.” The work is often discussed alongside his Christian apologetics, but its central argument concerns education, moral realism, and the consequences of rejecting objective value.