The Abolition of Man homework #2

Rossi, 1

Michael Rossi
October 17, 2009
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
Select two quotations that you think are the most important from the section of the text "The Way." Then summarize his argument in one paragraph.



Quote one: “If justice is a superstition, then so is my duty to my country or my race. If the pursuit of scientific knowledge is a real value, then so is conjugal fidelity” (Lewis 44).

Quote two: “The half hearted skeptics who still hope to find ‘real’ value when they have debunked the traditional ones. This is the rejection of the concept of value altogether” (Lewis 51).



Lewis begins by speaking of how selflessness cannot merely be derived from instincts. The concepts of posterity and martyrdom are not instincts because they one who promotes posterity will never enjoy the result, just as one who dies for a cause will never experience the fruits of their labor. These concepts originate from something greater than instincts: “This will cost you your life cannot lead directly to do not do this: it can lead to it only through a felt desire or an acknowledged duty of self-preservation” (Lewis 32). Lewis then shifts his lecture toward the concept of value. Lewis debunks his critics by claiming asserting that Lewis is defending and basing his argument off traditional values. His critics scrap these values and in doing so they reject the concept of value altogether, thus invalidating their argument.