C.S. Lewis
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- Calvin University Professor Micah Watson discussed C.S. Lewis’s views on law, politics, and government and how they connected to his Christian beliefs. This lecture took place at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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0:01 Shannon, The Podcast Producer at C-Span, announces 14 more weeks on The Lectures In History Podcast
0:10 This Week: Micah Watson on C.S.Lewis
1:04 The Intersection of C.S.Lewis, Liberty, and Law.
1:27 Watson hopes you find this illuminating, whether you are new to C. S. Lewis, or a longtime admirer of C. S. Lewis.
1:35 George Sayer, a student of C.S. Lewis' at Oxford University in The United Kingdom.
Professor Watson refer to C.S. Lewis by his name C.S. Lewis
or just by his last name, Lewis.
2:37 4 Areas about Lewis, Law, and Liberty.
1st/Claim #1: "Contrary to Conventional Wisdom that Lewis disdained and ignored politics, his personal life was very much intertwined with politics and law, and sometimes even policy. And one event in particular spurred him to write a short essay in which he endorses Limited Government Theory in almost explicitly Lockean Terms."
3:34
2nd/Claim #2: "He got a bit into the public policy weeds when it came to the Criminal Justice System."
3:50 3rd/Claim #3 "Lewis wrestled with the purpose of government on a macro scale, particularly with his very conflicted attitude about The Welfare State."
4:24 4th: Human Made Law to --> God Authored Law.
5:01 Conclusion: Framed in a Teleological Context. Liberty is Directional, it is heading somewhere.
5:37
6:11 C.S. Lewis remained interested in politics throughout his entire life. C.S. Lewis grew up in Northern Ireland. C.S. Lewis served in the infantry in World War I.
8:37 Views connected to Lewis' Biography.
*C.S. Lewis' Wife, Joy Lewis*
9:28 Joy Lewis background. Prolific with a Shotgun. Joy Lewis was wheel-chair bound. C.S. Lewis protected his wife from some hooligans who were
10:28 "Gosh darn it Jack, get out of my way, you're blocking my aim!"
11:16 Social Compact Theory
11:50 The Dilemma arises when The State doesn't hold up it's end of the bargain.
12:20 The State Protects Us Less, while demanding from us more and more. We seldom had fewer rights and liberties, nor more burdens, and we get less security in return.
12:53 When The State Cannot or Will Not Protect, Nature is come again, and The Right of Self-Protection Reverts To The Individual.
13:26 C.S. Lewis was careful not to appear too partisan.
13:56 Lewis had a deep distrust of government power.
*Claim #2: On The Criminal Justice System*
14:18
15:13 A Humanitarian Theory of Punishment.
(There's alot of information here. more details than I can keep up with and fully take note of).
16:08 Concern for criminals being treated as Less-Than-Human.
16:28 Dignity of The Human Being, make possible restoration because The Dignity of The Criminal should have and could have known better.
16:49 There is nothing wrong with
+ deterring crime or
+ rehabilitating a criminal
as a side-effect,
but if these are the Chief Priorities, then that is a problem.
17:06 DETERRING: Treating the criminal, who is Made in God's Image of Intrinsic Work, as a mere means rather than an end of self.
17:18 The more effective the "punishment show" that the State might put on for The Public, The Better from the pov of the deterrents.
17:30 Lewis worried about The Truth of whether the accused is actually Guilty or Not.
17:40 REHABILITATION: Treating criminals as patients who are sick.
18:27 Moral Dessert.
19:15
*Claim #3*
19:33
20:04 Concerned about The Abuses of an Overly Ambitious Government.
20:24 "As a Calvin Professor, I have to get Human Depravity and The Fall in there by Contract."
21:04 Government must exist for The Good of The Individuals.
22:07 Lewis insisted that The State exist For Individuals and not the other way around.
22:15 C.S. Lewis was a Platonist and an Aristotelean, but he breaks from them in regards to Political Activity.
Plato - Favors The Collective over The Individual
Aristotle - Favors The Collective over The Individual. Political Activity is a natural part of human flourishing.
C.S. Lewis - Political activity is a distasteful means to genuine aspects of human flourishing, not an intrinsic part of flourishing itself.
22:58 Even as only a means, Collective activities are necessary.
23:13 The Temptation to Invest Government With More Power
23:21 Lewis feared that legitimate human problems, that require
Social Coordination
and
Collective Activity
will give rise to
- solutions which are far worse than the original crisis.
24:00
Human Needs
1. Hunger
2. Sickness
3. The Dread of War
24:10
And
1. 2. Global 3. Technocracy
25:17 Worldwide Paternal Technocracy.
25:32 Is there any possiblity of getting that Welfare Honey without The Sting?
*Claim #4: Lewis as Natural Law Apologist*
28:18 _Mere Christianity_ and _The Abolition of Man_
28:38 _The Ransom Trilogy_ and _The Chronicles of Narnia_
28:48 August 6th, 1941, Lewis was invited to give a series of talks on Christianity to a war-weary Britain.
29:46 The Law of Nature (sounds like the concept of Common Sense to me)
31:24 🌠 Human Beings have a curious idea that they ought to behave a certain way and cannot really get rid of it. However, they do not behave in that way.
32:01 Lewis did not think that A Post-Christian Society could recover Truth by 1st becoming Christian.
32:21 "instead of returning directly to Christian Ethics, the world must first return to a belief in Objective Morality. Only then would it be open to returning to Christianity."
32:37 "Christianity is not the promulgation of a moral discovery, it is addressed only to penitents. Only to those who admit their disobedience to the known moral law. It offers forgiveness for having broken and Supernatural help towards keeping.
33:03 "you have to admit you are sick before you come to see The Doctor. And Jesus did not come for The Healthy."
33:41 One challenged faced from The Modern World is that many deny Morality has any objective basis at all.
34:25 Lewis did not so much argue to the conclusion that "The Natural Law Exists." but he is trying to persuade his audience and us that We Already believe in Objective Morality.
35:30 Instead of assuming that The Dao, Lewis' word for The Natural Law
36:01 Lewis apocalyptic conclusion to The Chronicles of Narnia.
36:23 1 Troubling Unresolved Plot Point: The Treacherous Dwarfs are determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, sitting huddled and miserable in what they take to be a black hole.
36:54 They are not in a Black Hole, but in the midst of The Open Sky, The Green Grass and Fragrant Flowers.
37:05 Lucy tearfully begs Aslan to Help The Dwarfs. Aslan provides The Dwarfs a sumptuous feast.
37:14 ⭐ "Not even Aslan will force those who choose blindness to see what Truly Is. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison, and so afraid of being taken in, that they can't be taken out."
37:39 The predicament of people who reject root and branch the possibility of Moral Reality.
The Predicament of Nihilism.
37:54 Writing a book on natural law theory would be something of a fools errand.
38:14 The Intrinsic Goods of
+ Health
+ Art
+ Music
*First Principles, we don't argue to them, we argue From Them*
38:59 Self-Evident, Intrinsic Reasonableness Shines By It's Own Light.
39:14 To not see that reasonableness is to be like The Narnian Dwarfs.
Awakening realizations in readers.
39:56 Ch 2. The Way
40:12 Last Chapter: The Abolition of Man
*Recap*
40:24
*Concluding*
40:45 _Mere Christianity_
Using a Fleet of Ships to illustrate Morality.
41:14 Keeping one's own ship Seaworthy by proper maintenance and discipline.
41:32 If you are constantly running into other ships, your own won't remain seaworthy for long.
42:01 It is not sailing however one likes to wherever one likes, Genuine Liberty is The Freedom to become what We Ought To Be.
42:14
+ Culture + Justice + Literature + Music + Family, are secondary
42:29 Religion and Law, Natural Law and Objective Morality.
43:02 The Success of Our Witness depends on The People of God Living Out Their Faith with Integrity, Humility, and verve.
________________________________________
*Q&A*
44:23
(I listened through the full video, going back a little to make sure I wrote down what was being said as accurate as I could. Unfortunately, I exceeded the character limit on this RUclips comment so the later part of my comment I had to put in a google doc I made just before listening to this lecture and Q&A by Professor Micah J. Watson)
This is one of my favorite authors and person I abso adore.
My Better Half says she loves Lewis' observations about Courage being the form every virtue takes at it's testing point.
Where's the audio? I tried a few times
That’s on you, brother.
I can hear full audio.
❤
Move your Rabbit ears antenna for audio reception
I found #TheLastBattle troubling.
It was meant to be. The book of Revelations is troubling and The Last Battle was a reflection of it.
I don't believe in god but i do like his space books and the chronicles of narnia movies
My Better Half says she loves Lewis' observations about Courage being the form every virtue takes at it's testing point.