The Restitution of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism
Overview
A trained philosopher and intellectual historian as well as a writer of genius, C. S. Lewis was one of the most lucid, profound, and eloquent critics of reductive scientific materialism. The Restitution of Man examines the conflict between scientific materialism and the classical Christian philosophical tradition as it has taken place since the seventeenth century. It examines Lewis’ role as inheritor of and spokesman for this tradition and as an articulate opponent of reductive naturalism and the “abolition of man” that materialistic ideologies always entail. In probing the breadth of Lewis’ writings, Michael Aeschliman shows why Lewis’ apologetic for the classical Christian view of persons is a precious resource for the transmission of human sanity, ethics, and wisdom in an age that has frequently ignored or obliterated all three.
Top Highlights
“‘His assumption is that religion is rational, and Reason religious,” (Page 2)
“The durable conception of recta ratio (‘right reason’) is that reason rightly used—sincerely, consistently, honestly used—leads naturally and inevitably to God.” (Pages 2–3)
“It is thus a misuse of science, an instance of scientism, the misapplication of scientific method, to assert that ‘what is not in principle observable is not in fact in existence.’ Truth, meaning, purpose, goodness, importance, are none of them scientific facts: they are, as Lewis says, ‘wholly immaterial relations.’” (Page 20)
“The ultimate effect of scientism is ‘to dissolve the absolute qualitative distinction between persons and things …,’ leading to the ‘abolition of man’—in Lewis’s phrase, putting things in the saddle to ride mankind.” (Page x)
“Science is a good servant but a bad master, a good method for investigating and manipulating the material world, but no method at all for deciding what to do with the knowledge and power acquired thereby.” (Page 33)
- Title: The Restitution of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism
- Author: Michael D. Aeschliman
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 1998
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963 › Philosophy; Scientism in literature; Metaphysics in literature; Materialism in literature; Philosophy in literature
- ISBNs: 9780802844910, 080284491, 080284491X
- Resource ID: LLS:RESTITUTIONMAN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:41:17Z