Latest / The Grammar of Classical Education / Week 145: The Way: Don’t Take the Bypass | The Abolition of Man #5

Transcript

Week 145: The Way: Don’t Take the Bypass | The Abolition of Man #5 · The Grammar of Classical Education

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Grammar of Classical Education,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: a podcast that examines the philosophical foundations of classical education,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: and then seeks to help classically minded educators bring those ideas to life
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: in their classroom, co-op, or homeschool settings.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Dr. Darlene Gomes, from Leading to Wonder, and I am so glad you've joined us today.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, or welcome if you're joining us for the first time.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I am so glad you're here as we continue our look at The Abolition of Man by C.S.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Last week, we finished up Chapter 1, Men Without Chests, where, through C.S.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis's presentation to an academic conference at the King's College,
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Newcastle,
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  SPEAKER_00: in the UK,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: on February 24-26,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: 1943, we learned a few things that are very applicable to us some 83 years later.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: We were reminded that everything teaches something.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: We saw what happens when objective value fades into subjective views.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we began to realize that Lewis was definitely onto something when he said,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: the head rules the belly through the chest.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Reason and intellect,
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  SPEAKER_00: our head,
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  SPEAKER_00: can only guide our passions and desires,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: our belly, through properly ordered affections, our heart, or our chest.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hence,
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: when we saw Lewis close his first night's presentation with a mic drop moment,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: We understood exactly what he was pointing to when he said, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: "...in a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise." We laugh
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: We castrate and bid the gelding be fruitful."
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I can only imagine the murmured discussions taking place
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: as those high academic thinkers wandered out of the hall that night.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Today, we pick up with the continuation of Lewis's presentation.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Again, to have been there,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: knowing that the audience had had a lot to think about since the previous evening,
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: they must have been very interested to see what would Lewis add
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: to his already pretty strong claims.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Lewis definitely did not disappoint.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, stepping away from the 1943 and into the present day,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will be honest and say this chapter was rough.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: In the interest of full disclosure,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I must have read that first page no less than 20 times before I had to stop and do
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: a bit of research and look at a few Lewis scholars and got my footing enough
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: to proceed forward.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And here is where I want to stop for just a moment.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine what it is like for our students when they are faced with
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: a seemingly insurmountable idea that they just cannot wrap their head around.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine that it's something relatively easy for us,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: which would make it a little more challenging not to respond with
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: a Am I speaking English?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or how do you not get this?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you see, that was why I challenged you to read the book along with listening to the podcast.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, you can listen without reading.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: You'll probably even understand it a bit quicker.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you have lost a huge part of the process.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: If we were working with electronics and there was a problem area in a circuit,
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: like there was in reading and understanding the first part of Chapter 2,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: well, in electronics, you could just use a jump wire to bypass the issue.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Does it still work?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not the way it was intended.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: If we're talking about a trip...
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: You hit some standstill traffic heading into a really awesome view of downtown.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of just staying the course, you take a bypass.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: You get there quicker, but you miss the cool city views.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not at least making an attempt to slog through this book is,
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: in a way, Short-circuiting the process.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: All that being said,
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: remember doing the hard stuff is in actuality forming us in
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: the same way we want our students to be formed.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So Back to the lecture hall in 1943 as the scholars wait
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: to hear Lewis's continued presentation about the Green Book,
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: or at least that's what they're anticipating.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Lewis opens with the following statement, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: The practical result of education in the spirit of the Green Book must be
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: the destruction of society which accepts it.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is not necessarily a refutation of subjectivism about values as a theory.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: What on earth does that even mean?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: After doing some research and getting some extra help here and there,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to go to Darlene's translation of what C.S.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis is possibly actually saying.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, goodness.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Even saying that I'm going to attempt to restate Lewis in my own words is enough
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: to make me feel just a little woozy.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: When Lewis says, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: the practical result of education in the spirit of the Green Book must be
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  SPEAKER_00: the destruction of the society which accepts it, end quote.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: In other words,
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  SPEAKER_00: he is saying the Green Book that we talked about last night is teaching a philosophy
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  SPEAKER_00: of And educating our young people following that philosophy will completely destroy
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: the society that accepts it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, just a note.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that the Green Book was promoting subjectivism.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Which, according to the BBC's introduction to ethics, quote,
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: subjectivism teaches that there are no objective moral truths out there, end quote.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: The BBC article also gave a quote from The Grapes of Wrath that gives
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: a somewhat clearer statement of subjectivism in the real world.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: It says, quote, there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's just stuff people do, end quote.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, according to Lewis,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: or at least my restatement of Lewis,
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: subjectivism will ultimately lead to the destruction of society.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he does not stop there.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis continues with, quote,
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: but this is not necessarily a refutation of subjectivism about values as a theory,
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  SPEAKER_00: end quote.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if I am understanding that correctly,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: based on a few sources,
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis is saying,
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: while the consequences of subjectivism If taught to our young people,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: we'll ultimately be quite destructive.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't really prove that subjectivism itself is false.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, a little easier to understand.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Something can be bad and still be true.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Lewis ends with this statement,
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: quote, the true doctrine might be a doctrine, which if we accept, we die, end quote.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Again, if I am understanding Lewis correctly,
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: he is laying out his plan for the entire evening's presentation by saying, okay,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we see that subjectivism is bad,
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: let's look at the philosophy, the doctrine of subjectivism itself.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see if it will even hold up under scrutiny.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where this chapter is going.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see if subjectivism can actually hold up Under logical scrutiny.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis is going to lead us through five propositions that force us
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: to consider what subjectivism is actually asking us to accept.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then,
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: using those ideas,
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  SPEAKER_00: he will help us see the logic in accepting
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: that there actually is objective moral value.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as I stated in the opening,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: this has been a rough chapter already,
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: and basically, we just finished one paragraph.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh dear.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I promise, we aren't going to go that slow through this chapter.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt that it was important to establish exactly where Lewis was going
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: in this section, Before we try to follow his thought process, his propositions.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I will say, for this chapter, I owe a great deal to the C.S.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis Institute and their series on the abolition of man,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: as well as bits and pieces of ideas that I managed to gather and put together
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: from other sources, both professional and sloggers like myself.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that interpreting Lewis is not something one does alone.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least not something one does alone well.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: With that, we're going to wrap up for today.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: A little shorter,
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: but it's been a long week,
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: as you will see if you jump to the essay on the Grammar
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: of Classical Education Substack.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Learning to Learn When Reality Doesn't Conform to Your Plans.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, And reality will come up a lot in this chapter as well.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So much excitement, so much slogging, so much doing the hard stuff, so much formation.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow in community.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to having you join us next week where we will continue through chapter 2.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I encourage you, try again to get through the first part of chapter 2.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And now that you hopefully have a little better understanding
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: of what Lewis is saying in the first paragraph,
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: maybe the rest will be just a tad easier.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: One can always hope.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I trust that whatever your teaching situation,
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's in a classroom or co-op or homeschooling,
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: that you have found these ideas not only encouraging, but challenging as well.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can listen to all of the episodes of The Grammar of Classical Education
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I also have available a weekly teacher's newsletter that includes some teacher tips
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: and freebies.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can sign up for that at the Leading to Wonder newsletter found at darlenegomes.substack.com.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about me and Leading to Wonder, please visit the website leading2wonder.com.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: No spaces.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or if you're interested in
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: the virtual or in-person workshops that I offer for schools,
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: co-ops, homeschool educators, and parent groups.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is Darlene Gomes and thank you for joining us.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, remember, as E.B.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: White said, Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.