Work on J4 (Chapter 2 Questions)
(13) “The practical result of education in the spirit of The Green Book must be the destruction of the society which accepts it.” Do you agree with Lewis that the consequences of such an education would be so destructive?
(14) What is the problem with looking for ‘basic’ values outside the Tao, and why won’t instinct serve as a basic or replacement source of value?
(15) “Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.” Lewis takes the example of dying for the good of the community to show how we can only justify this as a moral imperative if we buy into the values of the Tao? What other values can be thought of as ‘first principles’ in this way?
(16) “The rebellion of new ideologies against the Tao is a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find that they had destroyed themselves. 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.” Would you agree with Lewis that values are outside us, and we can’t manufacture our own? Does this passage have any significance for post-modern ethics?
(17) “Those who understand the spirit of the Tao and who have been led in that spirit can modify it in directions which that spirit itself demands.” How does developing the Tao from the inside differ from trying to change it from the outside?
(18) What might you say to someone who thought he or she “could get on quite comfortably” without values? Are there people like that around today?
If we get to Book 3.....
Journal 5
(19) “Each advance [of Man over Nature] leaves him weaker as well as stronger.” In what way might our control over nature weaken us? Should there be limits on such progress?
(20) How far can present generations be said to control future ones?
(21) What role does Lewis see the Conditioners playing?
(22) Why does Lewis think the old kind of men are more likely to be abolished under the present system of education than at any other time in previous history?
(23) “If you will not obey the Tao, or else commit suicide, obedience to impulse (and therefore in the long run, to mere ‘nature’) is the only course left open.” What would be the consequences of attempting to follow this course (i.e. acting simply on impulse)?
(24) “If the eugenics are efficient enough there will be no second revolt.” Do you find Lewis’ chilling vision of a conditioned society plausible?
(25) “Outside the Tao there is no ground for criticizing either the Tao or anything else.” How does Lewis justify this?
(26) Did Lewis’ arguments in The Abolition of Man persuade you of the benefits of living by the standards of the Tao and trying to cultivate its values in education?
