UM Honors Blog 2021-2022

       The first part of the Abolition of Man was definitely a good read with a lot of truth to it. One part that stuck out the most to me was when he talked about how kids will assume after one sentence that the rest of similar sentences mean the same. The direct quote is as follows: "The schoolboy who reads this passage in The Green Book will believe two propositions: firstly, that all sentences containing a predicate of value are statements about the emotional state of the speaker, and secondly, that all such statements are unimportant." Without clarification, it is easy to make this assumption, especially when you are younger.      I do think that this principle applies in everyday life as well. When meeting someone for the first time, we make assumptions about who they are based on what they said and how they acted. Even from the smallest interactions, we still make an assumption about their character. Also, in any  relationship, whether it b...

       The first lecture by C.S Lewis in the book "The Abolition of Man" was intriguing. I found what he said to be most agreeable. However, a section I found to be a great point was when he began to talk about the Tao. Tao essentially boils down to mean truth. According to C.S Lewis, this would be the deepest truths in life. I never really thought about universal truth as a cross-cultural idea. Yet after reading his points, I do agree with Lewis that indeed nearly every culture has those who seek to find the deepest of truths in life. One's personal feelings do not affirm or deny such truths they are independent of human feelings.      I loved his statement "The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can and should, obey it" (pg 6). This is not to say that feelings cannot help guide someone, but they are not always reliable. In Lewis's context feelings can be reasonable or unreasonable but not make definite truth statements. It is best to kee...

     The first essay in The Abolition of Man talks of how schools teach our children what to think, and how to feel about certain things. C.S. Lewis uses a specific book that he changes the title of to explain how children are not taught English in English class, but instead taught specific ideals that is forced upon most children in the school system. He is right about that, and unfortunately this also applies to many other aspects of our world, not just the education system.     What came to my mind was today's media, specifically when it comes to beauty. C.S. Lewis tells about how children are taught to feel certain ways about certain things, and that could not be more true when it comes to beauty standards. I will specifically be talking of western beauty standards. Many women are lied into believing they must be a certain figure, that their lips and nose must be a certain way, that their skin must be perfect, and that is what makes them worthy. Because...

      So far, I really do enjoy The Abolition of Man . I really do enjoy the points that C. S. Lewis is making about our feelings or emotions. On page 6, he makes a point about feelings that people today do the complete opposite of. I believe that if people would apply this point to their lives, it would make places like twitter less toxic.      C. S. Lewis says that “The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it” (Lewis 6). Emotion, or feelings, comes from the heart and reason comes from the head. Emotions are not truth because they are simply a reaction to something we experience. C. S. Lewis agrees with this when we says “No emotion is, in itself, a judgement” (6). He also makes the point that    emotions can be reasonable or unreasonable. This means that emotions have the potential the be lined up with truth or no where near truth. For this reason, we should run our feelings through the filter of reason and ...

     Although reading a lecture from C.S. Lewis, in which he essentially tears the two unnamed author’s book apart, is rather amusing, I would prefer to focus on the issue of the “Sublime”. In order to deal with this concept, we must first define what the “Sublime” is. According to Coldridge, it is not a descriptor for an object but for the feeling said object inspires. C.S. Lewis objects to this idea. He claims that if we were to follow this line of reasoning it would fall short. For example: if I were to observe that a specific person is contemptible it would not mean that I am feeling contemptible. The adjective describes the specific person or at least my impression of them based on interactions we have had.       So if the term “Sublime” is not a description of a feeling, then what is it? Well in my experience with this concept it has appeared most often when discussing Romanticism. Romanticism is a period of literature in which the authors strove...

 In the first chapter of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man,  he mentions an important point: unless teachers (or those in teaching roles) show students how to discern information on their own, rather than just teaching them to accept the teaching as true, then students would be susceptible to suspicious propaganda and naive to the lies of many different agendas in the future. Ironically, though I was bombarded with many different biases and dogmas from my parents and other adults in my family, I remember being taught to "chew and spit".  "Chew" means go ahead, put those teachings or sources in your mouth, and feel it out. "Spit" means make sure to get rid of ("spit out") anything that doesn't align with your worldview or values.  This is an idea that is important for students to learn, as they are constantly having new information shoved down their throats. Knowing what to take as wholesome, and what to spit out, is a discernment that tea...

       Thursday's performance of An Alphabet of Soldiers by resident music professors was not one to miss. I highly recommend attending the next time it is put on. The content of the lecture provided a deep understanding go the songs performed. The songs were poetry written by  Krystyna Zywulska, a Jew, during her time in  Auschwitz.  She was able to keep her jewish heritage a secret by going by an alias.  Auschwitz as commonly known, was  a concentration camp, at which over a million people died. Krystyna's time there was dark, she started out working the fields but was later reassigned to an office where she sorted through the things of those entering the camp. Though this job was physically easier it was emotionally just as hard, as she watched through the window the parade of bodies enter the 4th crematoria of Auschwitz. All of these horrors are encapsulated in her poetry, alongside the beauties she was able to catch a glim...