Which C.S. Lewis work argues against reducing humanity to purely biological or technological progress?

The Abolition of Man argues against treating human beings as products of purely biological or technological progress.

Lewis published The Abolition of Man in 1943 after delivering the Riddell Memorial Lectures at the University of Durham in February of that year. The short book examines education, moral reasoning, and the danger of separating facts from value. Lewis argues that human judgments depend on an objective moral order, which he calls the Tao.

The work is organized in three chapters: “Men Without Chests,” “The Way,” and “The Abolition of Man.” Lewis warns that attempts to control nature can eventually become attempts by some people to control other people. His concern is not scientific discovery itself, but the loss of shared standards for evaluating human purposes.

The title is sometimes mistaken for a science-fiction novel. It is a work of philosophical and theological criticism, written as a set of lectures rather than as fiction. Its ideas later influenced debates about education, technology, bioethics, and moral philosophy.