Latest / The Grammar of Classical Education / Week 143: Men Without Chests: Fighting the Fade of Objective Truth | The Abolition of Man #3

Transcript

Week 143: Men Without Chests: Fighting the Fade of Objective Truth | The Abolition of Man #3 · The Grammar of Classical Education

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SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Grammar of Classical Education,
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SPEAKER_00: a podcast that examines the philosophical foundations of classical education,
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SPEAKER_00: and then seeks to help classically minded educators bring those ideas to life
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SPEAKER_00: in their classroom, co-op, or homeschool settings.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
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SPEAKER_00: Dr. Darlene Gomes, from Leading to Wonder, and I am so glad you've joined us today.
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SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, or welcome if you're joining us for the first time.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: If you are here for the first time,
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SPEAKER_00: I would highly recommend that you pop back to the previous podcasts and listen to
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SPEAKER_00: the introduction in the first half of Chapter 1 as we are slowly working our way
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SPEAKER_00: through The Abolition of Man by C.S.
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SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
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SPEAKER_00: As you may be aware, this is a pretty heavy book.
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SPEAKER_00: If you missed the first part, you may feel a little lost.
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SPEAKER_00: And by the way,
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SPEAKER_00: if you're joining us,
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SPEAKER_00: I certainly hope you have made it through the reading of the rest of Chapter 1 in
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SPEAKER_00: the past week.
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SPEAKER_00: Remember,
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SPEAKER_00: listening to the approximately 30-minute long audio recording of Chapter 1,
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SPEAKER_00: or perhaps Reading about 2 pages a day will allow you to get through
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SPEAKER_00: the entire chapter.
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SPEAKER_00: Will it be easy?
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SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
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SPEAKER_00: But doing hard things is good for our students and it's also good for us.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, While reading is not required for the podcast,
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SPEAKER_00: it will certainly make it a lot easier to understand as we slowly work our way
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SPEAKER_00: through this short but challenging book.
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SPEAKER_00: You may remember last week that Lewis started off by pointing out the gravity of
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SPEAKER_00: the current academic situation as he saw it in 1943.
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SPEAKER_00: The lasting results of denying objective truth and removing it from the education
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SPEAKER_00: of young people and, well, from thought in general.
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SPEAKER_00: In doing some research this past week,
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SPEAKER_00: I actually found out that this wasn't really just an issue brought to his attention
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SPEAKER_00: in the Green Book by Gaius and Titius that he began Chapter 1 by addressing.
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SPEAKER_00: The issue of what was called logical positivism had been bothering Lewis since the 1930s.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, it's important to understand the term logical positivism
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SPEAKER_00: as it is extremely prevalent in today's world.
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SPEAKER_00: In the most simple of terms,
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SPEAKER_00: logical positivism believes that factual and provable ideas are the only truth.
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SPEAKER_00: And therefore,
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SPEAKER_00: anything that cannot be proven by science,
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SPEAKER_00: logic, or mathematics must be considered meaningless.
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SPEAKER_00: Notice it doesn't say that it must be considered false.
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SPEAKER_00: It's just meaningless.
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SPEAKER_00: And that is where Lewis draws his line in the sand.
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SPEAKER_00: It was quite interesting to read the input of Dr. James Houston, who saw C.S.
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SPEAKER_00: Lewis as both a mentor and a friend.
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SPEAKER_00: Dr. Houston asked Lewis, quote, How would you summarize, Lewis, all your writing?
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SPEAKER_00: What was the central theme of all that you want to communicate in your publications?
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SPEAKER_00: End quote.
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SPEAKER_00: And Lewis told him that he wanted to be remembered for his stand
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SPEAKER_00: against reductionism, the reducing of human value.
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SPEAKER_00: And that played a big part in the ideas presented in the abolition of man.
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SPEAKER_00: You see, The Green Book wasn't just a book that poorly presented literary skills.
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SPEAKER_00: It was actually an attempt to apply logical positivism as a standard of thought,
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SPEAKER_00: specifically in literary criticism.
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SPEAKER_00: Replacing objective moral values with the truth of the individual's
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SPEAKER_00: Ouch!
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SPEAKER_00: If that doesn't sound like our view of everybody has their own truth that we see today.
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SPEAKER_00: Now with that mindset, let's jump back into the abolition of man directly.
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SPEAKER_00: We left off the first section of the chapter with Lewis's view that the authors of
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SPEAKER_00: the Green Book were teaching more than just English.
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SPEAKER_00: Their stance that statements of feeling cannot be seen as real,
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SPEAKER_00: they hint at,
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SPEAKER_00: even ever so slightly,
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SPEAKER_00: That things that cannot be scientifically or factually proven cannot be seen
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SPEAKER_00: as truth.
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SPEAKER_00: And while it may appear to be an overstatement on his part,
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SPEAKER_00: Lewis was in actuality pointing out how this seemingly small issue could
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SPEAKER_00: so quickly lead to a major devaluing Of the objective in favor of
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SPEAKER_00: the purely subjective.
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SPEAKER_00: He goes on to discuss how it's not an overabundance of emotion in our students
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SPEAKER_00: that is the problem,
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SPEAKER_00: but it is the desert-like dryness, the lack of that emotion and passion.
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SPEAKER_00: Hence, the need to irrigate the deserts.
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SPEAKER_00: Lewis goes on to explain the importance of not just irrigating those emotions,
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SPEAKER_00: but in the proper formation of those emotions.
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SPEAKER_00: As he says, quote, End quote.
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SPEAKER_00: There are appropriate responses to things, as there are inappropriate responses.
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SPEAKER_00: A waterfall can be seen as sublime,
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SPEAKER_00: or it can be seen as pretty,
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SPEAKER_00: not because of how I feel about the waterfall,
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SPEAKER_00: but because the waterfall in and of itself warrants my response.
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SPEAKER_00: Things in this world don't cause a response in me.
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SPEAKER_00: They warrant a response from me.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, while yes,
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SPEAKER_00: things do make us feel a certain way,
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SPEAKER_00: the importance is that it's really because my heart feels that warranted response.
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SPEAKER_00: And here is one of Lewis's major points.
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SPEAKER_00: We, as educators,
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SPEAKER_00: in the case of homeschool parents or teachers,
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SPEAKER_00: we are to be forming that warranted response,
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SPEAKER_00: training their affections,
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SPEAKER_00: or as we would recognize Augustine's,
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SPEAKER_00: Ordo Amoris,
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SPEAKER_00: the ordering of A few
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SPEAKER_00: real life examples would be we want our students to view
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SPEAKER_00: the good in courage.
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SPEAKER_00: We must teach that courage is a good response to have when faced with difficulty.
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SPEAKER_00: We want them to see what courage looks like in the real world.
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SPEAKER_00: And what a lack of courage would look like.
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SPEAKER_00: We want our students to view the good of helping others.
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SPEAKER_00: We must teach that kindness is a disposition of the heart that we are to have in any situation.
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SPEAKER_00: We want them to see what kindness looks like in the real world and what a lack
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SPEAKER_00: of kindness looks like.
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SPEAKER_00: And then Lewis makes a small but profound statement that we would do well to remember.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, quote, all this before he is in age to reason, end quote.
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SPEAKER_00: In other words, The ordering of loves must start early.
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SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say that the result will be that when reason does come to
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SPEAKER_00: the forefront, he,
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SPEAKER_00: the student,
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SPEAKER_00: will hold out his hand in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears
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SPEAKER_00: to her.
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SPEAKER_00: Oh, my fellow educators,
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SPEAKER_00: is that not exactly what we desire for our students,
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SPEAKER_00: for our children, for ourselves?
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SPEAKER_00: We'll be talking more about that in our essay this week.
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SPEAKER_00: If you are listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts,
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SPEAKER_00: you might find it interesting to jump over to Substack
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SPEAKER_00: for some additional insight regarding this.
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SPEAKER_00: But back to Lewis and the Abolition of Man.
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SPEAKER_00: After making this profound but extremely reasonable assessment of the importance
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SPEAKER_00: of not just teaching our students facts,
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SPEAKER_00: but guiding their hearts toward wisdom,
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SPEAKER_00: even before reasoning steps on the stage,
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SPEAKER_00: Lewis then branches off into a rather lengthy section on the Tao.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, if you are anything like me, this section was very difficult to process.
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SPEAKER_00: When Lewis defines the Tao as, quote, it is nature.
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SPEAKER_00: It is the way, the road.
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SPEAKER_00: It is the way in which the universe goes on.
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SPEAKER_00: It is also the way which every man should tread in imitation of that cosmic
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SPEAKER_00: and supercosmic progression."
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SPEAKER_00: What?
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SPEAKER_00: Again, if you're anything like me, you might have bristled just a little.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Merriam-Webster definition of the Tao is, quote,
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SPEAKER_00: the unconditional and unknowable source and guiding principle of all reality and
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SPEAKER_00: the process of nature by which all things change and which is to be followed for
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SPEAKER_00: a life of harmony, end quote.
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SPEAKER_00: I got pretty tangled up in this section of the book because part
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SPEAKER_00: of me immediately went, but wait, I thought Lewis was a Christian.
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SPEAKER_00: This doesn't sound anything like a Christian belief at all.
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SPEAKER_00: So off I went to figure out what on earth Lewis was actually saying.
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SPEAKER_00: Jumping ahead a bit,
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SPEAKER_00: he isn't saying that he believes in the Tao in the same way he believes
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SPEAKER_00: in biblical truth.
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SPEAKER_00: He's not even saying that all traditions and truth are equal.
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SPEAKER_00: But he is using the Tao as an umbrella for a very distinct and very wise reason.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, back to his use of the Tao as a basis for establishing an objective reality.
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SPEAKER_00: Consider first, where was he speaking and who were his listeners?
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SPEAKER_00: You may remember...
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SPEAKER_00: They were a highly educated academic audience,
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SPEAKER_00: most in the area of English,
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SPEAKER_00: meaning they knew their stuff and they were very aware of words and their usage.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, step back for just a moment.
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SPEAKER_00: Would Lewis have gotten their attention to If right off the bat,
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SPEAKER_00: he had pointed everything to the reality that could be found in God alone,
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SPEAKER_00: a reality that Lewis himself strongly believed.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't think so.
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SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a quick personal example.
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SPEAKER_00: When teaching persuasive speaking to my high school students they learned
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SPEAKER_00: that they must have strong support to make a claim.
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SPEAKER_00: Their opinions could definitely be included but they had to have solid support
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SPEAKER_00: for their statements.
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SPEAKER_00: While it was a Christian school They knew that they could use Scripture as a source,
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SPEAKER_00: but that it could never be their only source in a persuasive speech.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, you may be saying,
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SPEAKER_00: wait a minute, isn't the Bible our only true source for faith and practice?
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SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes it is.
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SPEAKER_00: But as I told my students,
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SPEAKER_00: Not everyone they will attempt to persuade will come from that same viewpoint.
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SPEAKER_00: You most definitely can use Scripture, but you need other sources as well.
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SPEAKER_00: While Scripture is our ultimate source, it doesn't hold that same weight for everyone.
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SPEAKER_00: In a way...
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SPEAKER_00: I think that that is what Lewis was doing here.
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SPEAKER_00: He is wise.
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SPEAKER_00: He knows his audience.
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SPEAKER_00: By placing this objective reality of truth Under an umbrella that Plato,
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SPEAKER_00: Aristotle, the Stoics, Confucius, Hinduism, the Jews, all of them would recognize.
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SPEAKER_00: Lewis is now laying a solid framework for his entire premise moving forward.
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SPEAKER_00: That there is an objective moral reality outside of man himself.
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SPEAKER_00: And we are going to stop right here.
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SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't want to drag this out,
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SPEAKER_00: but I do think it's crucial for us to understand the foundation of Lewis's ideas
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SPEAKER_00: before we plow headlong into his full thesis.
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SPEAKER_00: So yes, you have one more week to spend in Chapter 1.
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SPEAKER_00: At this point, we are almost done with the chapter.
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SPEAKER_00: So as you listen to it or read it,
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SPEAKER_00: hopefully again,
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SPEAKER_00: you should be feeling a little bit more at ease with his language and his ideas.
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SPEAKER_00: Again, you aren't being graded on your reading or your listening to the audiobook.
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SPEAKER_00: You aren't even being quizzed.
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SPEAKER_00: But you are doing the hard stuff.
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SPEAKER_00: And if you are, kudos to you.
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SPEAKER_00: If not, oh, please consider joining in.
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SPEAKER_00: You might find it's not as bad as you think it might be.
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SPEAKER_00: So see you next week.
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SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you'll make it through the chapter or at least part of
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SPEAKER_00: the chapter one more time as we wrap up chapter one entitled Men Without Chests.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today.
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SPEAKER_00: I trust that whatever your teaching situation,
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SPEAKER_00: whether it's in a classroom or co-op or homeschooling,
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SPEAKER_00: that you have found these ideas not only encouraging, but challenging as well.
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SPEAKER_00: You can listen to all of the episodes of The Grammar of Classical Education
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SPEAKER_00: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.com.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: I also have available a weekly teacher's newsletter that includes some teacher tips
20:26
SPEAKER_00: and freebies.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: You can sign up for that at the Leading to Wonder newsletter found at darlenegomes.substack.com.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: To learn more about me and Leading to Wonder, please visit the website leading2wonder.com.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: No spaces.
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SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or if you're interested in
20:54
SPEAKER_00: the virtual or in-person workshops that I offer for schools,
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SPEAKER_00: co-ops, homeschool educators, and parent groups.
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SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is Darlene Gomes and thank you for joining us.
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SPEAKER_00: Until next week, remember, as E.B.
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SPEAKER_00: White said, Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.