Men with Chests

As we near the end of Chapter 1, Lewis continues to contrast the educational project of Gaius and Titius with their predecessors. Sages from Western cultures such as Aristotle, and Easter cultures such as Confucius, believed there to be objective value beyond man, and that it was the purpose of education to discover that reality as it is. But Gaius and Titius reject objective value, making man the final arbiter of all value judgments.

Lewis explores why Gaius and Titius have opted to deny the legitimacy of proper emotional responses. This takes us into the question of what education is for and we see the radical shift Gaius and Titius are making by denying objective value.

C.S. Lewis takes Gaius and Titius to task in Chapter 1 of The Abolition of Man for stripping children of their imagination with neither Gaius and Titius nor the children having awareness of what's been done. While they claim to be doing literary criticism, Gaius and Titius are training children to become "trousered apes" that are unable to discern the proper emotional response to different pieces of writing. But this goes beyond a mere English lesson. For the children are being taught that there is no such thing as a correct emotional response to phenomena taking place around them.  

In episode one, we introduce the goals of the show and begin our exploration of what will be the topic of season one, C.S. Lewis's, The Abolition of Man.