<i>The Discarded Image</i> and the Debunked <i>Tao</i>: Objective Value in C.S. Lewis’ Medieval Model and His Critique of Modernity

Abstract

This paper considers C.S. Lewis&amp;#8217; &amp;#8220;doctrine of objective value&amp;#8221; in two of his major works, &lt;i&gt;The Abolition of Man&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;The Discarded Image.&lt;/i&gt; Lewis uses the Chinese name &lt;i&gt;Tao&lt;/i&gt;, albeit with an incomplete understanding of its origins, for the objective worldview. The paper argues that &lt;i&gt;Tao&lt;/i&gt;, as an explicit theme of &lt;i&gt;The Abolition of Man&lt;/i&gt;, is also a determining undercurrent in &lt;i&gt;The Discarded Image.&lt;/i&gt; In the former work, &lt;i&gt;Tao&lt;/i&gt; is what Lewis wants to defend and restore against twentieth-century secular ideologies, which Lewis condemns as infected with &amp;#8220;the poison of subjectivism&amp;#8221;. In the latter work, where Lewis presents one of the best accounts of the European medieval model of the Universe, objective value (the &lt;i&gt;Tao&lt;/i&gt; in Lewis&amp;#8217; argument) underlies both how the model has been shaped, and how Lewis, as a medievalist, accounts for and draws upon it as an intellectual and spiritual resource. The purpose of this parallel study is to show that Lewis&amp;#8217; explication of the &lt;i&gt;Tao&lt;/i&gt; in &lt;i&gt;The Abolition of Man&lt;/i&gt;, which is a &amp;#8220;built-in&amp;#8221;, implicit belief in &lt;i&gt;The Discarded Image&lt;/i&gt;, provides a critique of tendencies towards the subjectivism prevalent in Lewis&amp;#8217; lifetime. These tendencies can be traced into the moral relativism, pluralism and reductionism of the twenty-first century, giving Lewis&amp;#8217; work the status of twentieth-century prophecy.