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Description edit
C. S. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Gaius: The name C.S. Lewis gives to one of the authors of the children's text-book which he calls "The Green Book". C.S. Lewis conceals the actual name of the authors and the book.
- Titius: The name C.S. Lewis gives to one of the authors of the children's text-book which he calls "The Green Book". C.S. Lewis conceals the actual name of the authors and the book.
Quotes edit
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“And all the time--such is the tragi-comedy of our situation--we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive,' or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity.' In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”
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“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”
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“There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the 'wisdom' of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.”
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It is the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.
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The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.
Highlighted by 156 Kindle customers -
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
Highlighted by 145 Kindle customers -
The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.
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The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary colour, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in.
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Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.12
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Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.
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A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
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If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all.
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When all that says ‘it is good’ has been debunked, what says ‘I want’ remains.
Highlighted by 91 Kindle customers
Organizations edit
First Sentence edit
I doubt whether we are sufficiently attentive to the importance of elementary text books.
Table of Contents edit
1. Men Without Chests
2. The Way
3. The Abolition of Man
Appendix--Illustrations of the Tao
Notes
Glossary edit
- secundum litteram: (Latin) Strictly or literally speaking.
- obiter dicta: (Latin) Incidental or passing remarks.
- ordo amoris: (Latin) Rightly ordered love; a love characterized by balance and right proportion.
- rapprochement: (French) Reconciliation; the reaching of harmony; unanimity.
- dulce: (Latin) Sweet.
- decorum: (Latin) Seemly, beautiful, graceful, suitable, fine, noble.
- experimentum crucis: (Latin) A crucial experiment; an experiment that puts the theory to the test.
- ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον: (Greek) "but in light, even slay us." A quote from Homer's "Iliad".
- tellurian: Of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants; terrestrial.
- Humani nihil a me alienum puto: (Latin) "I consider nothing that is human alien to me." A quote from "Heauton Timorumenos" by Roman playwright Publius Terentius Afer.
- factitious: Artificial; contrived.
- petitio: (Latin, short for "petitio principii," "assuming the initial point") The logical fallacy of assuming the conclusion in the premises; begging the question.
- sic volo, sic jubeo: (Latin) this I want, this I decree.
- ferum victorem cepit: (Latin, short for "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit," "captive Greece conquered her savage victor") A quote from the Roman poet Horace describing how Roman culture was highly influenced by the Greeks.
- inter alia: (Latin) Among other things.
- ύλη: (Greek) Matter, stuff, material, substance.
- sui generis: (Latin) Unique in its kind, without parallel.
- rede: To counsel; advise.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 7 of 102 in National Review - 100 Best Non-fiction Books of the Century. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- C. S. Lewis (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: 1943
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 121
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: 1943
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 121
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 370.1
Subjects edit
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