The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism

00:31:13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPeyJvXU68k

Summary

TLDRThe video discusses the warnings by CS Lewis about the potential misuse of science, known as scientism. Lewis, alongside Orwell and Chesterton, critiqued scientism for attempting to apply scientific methods universally, which he believed could lead to controlling and authoritarian uses of science. He noted the dangers of treating science as an ideology or religion, thereby corrupting its true purpose. Lewis compared modern science to magic, saying both can function as religions, create a sense of power, and evoke a lack of skepticism among followers. He advocated for recognizing the limits of science, emphasizing the importance of ethics and humanity in guiding scientific applications. The video also highlights how these ideas have contemporary relevance, especially concerning debates about scientific authority and ethics.

Takeaways

  • ⚠️ CS Lewis warned against the dangers of deifying science, known as scientism.
  • 🧙‍♂️ Lewis compared science to magic, highlighting similar risks of functioning as religions and seeking power.
  • 📚 Science should have ethical boundaries to prevent authoritarian misuse.
  • ❓ Skepticism is crucial; blind belief in scientific claims can lead to gullibility and misuse.
  • 🔍 Lewis was not anti-science; he supported scientific inquiry but was critical of its ideological misuse.
  • 🏛️ Concerns about a 'scientocracy' where few dictate society in the name of science were raised.
  • 🗣️ Public policy should involve more than technical scientific advice; ethical considerations matter.
  • 🌍 Lewis highlighted the need for a balance between scientific advancement and preserving human dignity.
  • 🔬 Lewis's critique remains relevant in today's discussions around science and society.
  • 🌌 Hope was expressed for a science that respects human rights and dignity beyond mere technical achievements.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The video begins by discussing how science and technology have transformed the world, yet it questions the costs of this transformation. The narrative focuses on three writers: GK Chesterton, George Orwell, and CS Lewis, who highlighted the dark aspects of scientific and technological progress. Specifically, CS Lewis criticized the ideology of scientism, which he saw as a materialistic approach that tried to explain everything in terms of science. Lewis believed that science was legitimate but was wary of scientism's potential to corrupt and its extreme application that aimed for power and control.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    CS Lewis draws a surprising parallel between science and magic, arguing that both can operate as a form of religion. Science, like magic, can bestow a sense of grandeur and meaning to life, akin to a religious belief system. The video cites examples, such as Darwin's theory of evolution becoming a quasi-religion for some, where science assumes a sacred role in people's lives. It notes how events like Darwin Day celebrations take on religious-like fervor, showing how science can potentially replace traditional religion for some atheists, giving their lives meaning and order.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Lewis also identified a second similarity between science and magic: their ability to promote gullibility. Despite being about facts, science, according to Lewis, can lead people to accept ideas uncritically if presented under the guise of scientific authority. The video discusses Freud’s theories as an example of how scientific ideas can engender gullibility, suggesting that complex phenomena are reduced to simplistic explanations. Evolutionism is criticized similarly, as Lewis challenges the notion that the mind could emerge from a purely material and mindless process, pointing out its inherent contradictions.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Lewis questioned the logic of trusting a mind produced by irrational processes, as proposed by Darwinian evolution. He argued that if reason is a byproduct of irrational forces, it undermines the validity of human cognition itself. The video mentions that even Darwin had concerns about this, as documented in his autobiography. Lewis’s skepticism extended to other scientific concepts that claim rationality while functioning on questionable principles, making the case that science should be scrutinized just like any other belief system, especially when it demands uncritical acceptance.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    The third comparison Lewis makes between science and magic is in their pursuit of power. He noted that both strive for control—magic, through supernatural means, and science, through technological advancement. The video shows how societies have historically associated power with scientific progress, envisioning a utopian future shaped by scientific innovation. However, Lewis warned that unlike magic, science has real capacity for control, making it far more dangerous if ethical constraints are absent. Science’s potential for manipulation, without moral limits, could lead to dystopian realities.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:31:13

    Lewis feared scientific authoritarianism, a concern he expressed through his fiction and essays. He critiqued the idea that science could dictate ethical norms and govern society, cautioning against a future where science becomes akin to a ruling class, or 'scientocracy'. The video asserts Lewis’s belief that science needs ethical checks from outside its field to prevent the emergence of a totalitarian regime based on scientific dogma. He advocated for a science that acknowledges its boundaries and respects human values, aiming for a balance between scientific progress and moral integrity.

Show more

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • Who expressed concerns about the misuse of science?

    CS Lewis, among others, expressed concerns about the misuse of science and scientism.

  • What is scientism according to CS Lewis?

    Scientism is the ideology that attempts to apply scientific methods to every aspect of human life and deify science, which CS Lewis opposed.

  • How do science and magic compare according to Lewis?

    Lewis compared science to magic in that both can serve as alternate religions, promote gullibility, and be used as quests for power.

  • What are the dangers of scientism as mentioned in the video?

    Dangers include scientific authoritarianism, corruption of science for power, and ignoring ethical considerations.

  • Did CS Lewis hate science?

    No, CS Lewis did not hate science. He saw it as a legitimate enterprise but was critical of scientism.

  • How did CS Lewis view the relationship between science and ethics?

    Lewis believed that science needs to be guided by ethical and transcendental principles to prevent misuse.

  • What does Lewis mean by scientific authoritarianism?

    Scientific authoritarianism is the governance or control by a select few claiming authority through scientific knowledge or pseudo-scientific reasoning.

  • How is modern science contrasted with magic in terms of effects?

    While magic fails to control, modern science can control and manipulate populations if not ethically regulated.

  • What did Lewis hope scientists would achieve in terms of science and humanity?

    Lewis hoped scientists would create a science focused on respecting human rights and dignity, not overshadowed by scientism.

  • Are CS Lewis's concerns relevant today?

    Yes, his concerns about scientism and scientific authoritarianism remain relevant in discussions of science and ethics.

View more video summaries

Get instant access to free YouTube video summaries powered by AI!
Subtitles
en
Auto Scroll:
  • 00:00:00
    [Music]
  • 00:00:01
    we will restore science to its rightful
  • 00:00:03
    place and wheel technology wonders
  • 00:00:13
    [Music]
  • 00:00:28
    [Music]
  • 00:00:47
    [Music]
  • 00:01:10
    [Music]
  • 00:01:23
    we live in an age of
  • 00:01:26
    science technology
  • 00:01:31
    progress modern science has remade our
  • 00:01:36
    world but at what
  • 00:01:54
    cost during the first half of the 20th
  • 00:01:57
    century three prophetic writers warned
  • 00:02:00
    about the Dark Side of scientific and
  • 00:02:02
    technological progress GK
  • 00:02:05
    Chesterton George
  • 00:02:07
    Orwell and CS
  • 00:02:10
    Lewis best known for his Narnia stories
  • 00:02:12
    and his books of Christian theology CS
  • 00:02:15
    Lewis also had an intense interest in
  • 00:02:18
    The Growing Power of scientism the
  • 00:02:20
    effort to use the methods of science to
  • 00:02:23
    explain and control every part of human
  • 00:02:27
    life Lewis was very much a I and a
  • 00:02:30
    Critic of scientism he was opposed to an
  • 00:02:33
    ideology which in his view had been
  • 00:02:37
    confused with science it was a
  • 00:02:38
    particular materialistic approach which
  • 00:02:41
    wanted to reduce everything that we
  • 00:02:44
    could learn
  • 00:02:45
    scientifically uh to materialistic
  • 00:02:48
    causes blind undirected causes uh Lewis
  • 00:02:53
    thought that science was was a perfectly
  • 00:02:56
    legitimate Enterprise he never denied it
  • 00:02:58
    he he in fact studied it quite a bit he
  • 00:03:03
    never so far as I know attacked science
  • 00:03:05
    itself what he attacked was scientism
  • 00:03:07
    this idea that the method or the methods
  • 00:03:09
    really of Natural Science should be the
  • 00:03:12
    bar by which every other intellectual
  • 00:03:14
    discipline must be held just like in all
  • 00:03:17
    human disciplines Lewis thought that
  • 00:03:19
    science could be corrupted and that some
  • 00:03:21
    people could pursue science because they
  • 00:03:23
    wanted power over the world and power
  • 00:03:26
    over other people in particular and I
  • 00:03:29
    think what he saw was that you had to
  • 00:03:31
    avoid those extremes in the in the um
  • 00:03:34
    not only in the employment of science
  • 00:03:36
    but in the popularization of it you
  • 00:03:38
    could not afford to ignore the finding
  • 00:03:40
    of science the importance of scientific
  • 00:03:43
    method you had to see that it's one of
  • 00:03:45
    the greatest um applications and
  • 00:03:48
    developments of the rational method per
  • 00:03:50
    se a subset of the rational method but
  • 00:03:53
    that it was very dangerous and that in
  • 00:03:55
    the 20th century it had had very
  • 00:03:56
    malignant consequences to deify it
  • 00:04:00
    Scientific Socialism cred credibly a
  • 00:04:04
    scientific version of Politics the
  • 00:04:06
    marxists called their system Scientific
  • 00:04:08
    Socialism well no one in his right mind
  • 00:04:10
    in 2012 will say that that Marxism was
  • 00:04:13
    scientific no one in his right mind but
  • 00:04:15
    people did for 150 years 170 years
  • 00:04:19
    social darwinist racial science in Nazi
  • 00:04:23
    Germany enormous Prestige was given to
  • 00:04:26
    racialist views by their apparent
  • 00:04:29
    clothing
  • 00:04:30
    um people such as as as uh as Heckle and
  • 00:04:34
    mshot and buner popularizing reductive
  • 00:04:37
    scientific ideas with immense success in
  • 00:04:40
    many ways more success in in Germany
  • 00:04:43
    than in than in England Lewis saw these
  • 00:04:46
    developments he saw that that two world
  • 00:04:48
    wars in which one he served and was
  • 00:04:50
    badly wounded had roots in barbaric and
  • 00:04:55
    hysterical scientistic ideas abuses of
  • 00:04:58
    the scientific method abuses of
  • 00:05:00
    scientific terminology and language
  • 00:05:02
    abuses of scientific
  • 00:05:04
    faith when warning about the abuse of
  • 00:05:07
    science Lewis made an unusual comparison
  • 00:05:10
    although most people think of science as
  • 00:05:12
    something modern Lewis compared it to
  • 00:05:15
    something ancient
  • 00:05:18
    magic CS Lewis thought that science and
  • 00:05:21
    Magic are
  • 00:05:23
    twins now if you think about this this
  • 00:05:25
    might seem very strange but you know I
  • 00:05:28
    think that Lewis was very perceptive
  • 00:05:30
    here uh in fact he highlighted three
  • 00:05:33
    different ways that science and Magic
  • 00:05:35
    really are quite
  • 00:05:39
    similar the first way science and Magic
  • 00:05:41
    are similar according to Lewis is their
  • 00:05:44
    ability to function as a
  • 00:05:48
    religion uh certainly a magical view of
  • 00:05:51
    the world can give one a sense that
  • 00:05:53
    there's something more than just our
  • 00:05:55
    everyday lives if you walk through a
  • 00:05:57
    forest and think it's Enchanted it gives
  • 00:05:58
    you a sense of a Grand Vision that
  • 00:06:00
    there's something out there uh that we
  • 00:06:02
    don't ordinarily experience it can give
  • 00:06:04
    you a sense of meaning I think there's a
  • 00:06:07
    real reason why fantasy stories are so
  • 00:06:10
    beloved whether it be Lewis's own
  • 00:06:12
    Chronicles of Narnia or Geral tolkin
  • 00:06:14
    Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter it
  • 00:06:17
    really strikes a deep chord in people
  • 00:06:20
    whether they're religious or not about a
  • 00:06:23
    sense of grandeur in the universe
  • 00:06:26
    something higher than ourselves and in
  • 00:06:28
    fact from for some people who aren't
  • 00:06:30
    religious this magical view of the world
  • 00:06:33
    can actually be even more attractive
  • 00:06:34
    because it substitutes for that well in
  • 00:06:37
    the same way science can be an
  • 00:06:39
    alternative religion and during Lewis's
  • 00:06:42
    own time there were people like HG Wells
  • 00:06:44
    who turned say Darwin's theory of
  • 00:06:46
    evolution into this Cosmic theory of
  • 00:06:49
    Life developing in this blind struggle
  • 00:06:51
    in the universe and then human life
  • 00:06:53
    develops sort of this heroic character
  • 00:06:55
    fighting against nature and then
  • 00:06:57
    eventually man evolved and evolves
  • 00:06:59
    himself through Eugenics into a race of
  • 00:07:01
    demigods but for man no rest and no
  • 00:07:04
    ending he must go on Conquest Beyond
  • 00:07:07
    Conquest first this little planet in its
  • 00:07:10
    winds and waves and then all the laws of
  • 00:07:13
    mind and matter that restrain him then
  • 00:07:16
    the planets about him and at last out
  • 00:07:20
    across immensity to the
  • 00:07:23
    stars and when he has conquered all the
  • 00:07:25
    deeps of space and all the mysteries of
  • 00:07:28
    time
  • 00:07:30
    still he will be
  • 00:07:32
    begin and this sort of Epic struggle
  • 00:07:35
    this Cosmic struggle of evolution was
  • 00:07:37
    really an alternate religion for HG
  • 00:07:39
    Wells and you know you see that same
  • 00:07:42
    thing today whether it be Oxford
  • 00:07:45
    biologist Richard Dawkins who says that
  • 00:07:47
    Darwin helps us become an intellectually
  • 00:07:48
    fulfilled atheist or uh in 2012 we had
  • 00:07:52
    10 to 20,000 people converge on
  • 00:07:55
    Washington DC in the United States uh
  • 00:07:57
    for this reason rally where a lot of the
  • 00:08:00
    people testifying whe they really offer
  • 00:08:02
    science as a
  • 00:08:05
    religion if you look at the Royal
  • 00:08:07
    Society of London the equivalent for the
  • 00:08:09
    British Commonwealth again about 90% of
  • 00:08:12
    them are
  • 00:08:14
    atheists and so today I think you see a
  • 00:08:16
    lot of people speaking in the name of
  • 00:08:18
    science who offer science as a quasi
  • 00:08:21
    religion it's what gives their uh lives
  • 00:08:24
    meaning another area that we see this
  • 00:08:27
    today isn't in the whole celebration of
  • 00:08:29
    Darwin's birthday hundreds of colleges
  • 00:08:33
    Community organizations if not thousands
  • 00:08:36
    around the world on February 12th every
  • 00:08:38
    year hold Darwin Day Celebrations
  • 00:08:42
    sometimes they have birthday cakes they
  • 00:08:43
    have special concerts even with hymns
  • 00:08:46
    towards Darwin I mean it really takes on
  • 00:08:49
    the trappings of a religion
  • 00:08:51
    [Music]
  • 00:09:30
    [Applause]
  • 00:09:30
    [Music]
  • 00:09:52
    with the knowledge of the first atomic
  • 00:09:54
    explosions to guide us our chances for
  • 00:09:57
    survival will be far better than those
  • 00:09:59
    of the people of Hiroshima and nasaki if
  • 00:10:02
    we act on our knowledge and are
  • 00:10:05
    prepared a second way science at Magic
  • 00:10:07
    are similar according to Lewis is their
  • 00:10:10
    encouragement of a lack of
  • 00:10:12
    skepticism now again this may seem just
  • 00:10:15
    completely outlandish because science
  • 00:10:18
    how does that promote gullibility
  • 00:10:19
    science is supposed to be just the hard
  • 00:10:21
    facts now of course magic you could
  • 00:10:24
    think of in you know the Trib has a
  • 00:10:26
    witch doctor and they believe whatever
  • 00:10:27
    the witch doctor says and so being you
  • 00:10:30
    know magical thinking can promote a type
  • 00:10:32
    of credulous thinking where you just
  • 00:10:34
    trust what the authority figure says but
  • 00:10:37
    how does science promote that type of
  • 00:10:39
    credulous or gullible thinking Lewis
  • 00:10:41
    pointed out that in the modern world
  • 00:10:43
    people will believe almost anything if
  • 00:10:46
    it's dressed up in the name of
  • 00:10:49
    [Music]
  • 00:10:54
    science he's going to be all right of
  • 00:10:57
    course he's going to be all right oh
  • 00:10:59
    sure oh Mom the dock here just wants to
  • 00:11:01
    cut a little of the Badness out of
  • 00:11:03
    me for Lewis one of the leading examples
  • 00:11:06
    of science fueled gullibility was
  • 00:11:09
    freudianism Lewis had an interest in
  • 00:11:11
    Sigman Freud since his days as an Oxford
  • 00:11:14
    undergraduate Lewis was intrigued by
  • 00:11:16
    some of the claims of psychoanalysis but
  • 00:11:19
    he ultimately rejected the effort by
  • 00:11:21
    Freud's followers to explain everything
  • 00:11:23
    from religion to stealing cars as a
  • 00:11:26
    result of our subconscious urges
  • 00:11:32
    [Applause]
  • 00:11:34
    before the police finally caught up with
  • 00:11:36
    him Peter took about 30 cars a car had
  • 00:11:39
    meaning to him in a symbolic way it
  • 00:11:42
    represented his mother since he could
  • 00:11:44
    not get her he had to have a substitute
  • 00:11:47
    and a car was that substitute hence his
  • 00:11:51
    thrill every time he drove a car hence
  • 00:11:54
    his continuous stealing to the average
  • 00:11:57
    reader such an explanation may seem seem
  • 00:11:59
    far-fetched yet clinical experience
  • 00:12:02
    shows that a car often stands for a
  • 00:12:04
    woman in Daily Language we often call a
  • 00:12:07
    car she when we have the tank filled
  • 00:12:10
    with gasoline we say fill her
  • 00:12:15
    up well Lewis pointed out that if you
  • 00:12:17
    actually take Freud's view to its
  • 00:12:20
    eventual conclusion that actually
  • 00:12:22
    undermines even the belief in
  • 00:12:24
    freudianism suppose suppose you you had
  • 00:12:26
    a a Freud somebody kind of like
  • 00:12:29
    Freud and this person who is kind of
  • 00:12:32
    like Freud said no one ever believes
  • 00:12:35
    anything for reason because there's
  • 00:12:37
    always some
  • 00:12:39
    other uh explanation for why they why
  • 00:12:42
    they believe it other than their reason
  • 00:12:43
    for believing it well that would be true
  • 00:12:47
    of religious people but it would also be
  • 00:12:49
    true of Freud right Freud himself Lou's
  • 00:12:53
    point is where does this end if you
  • 00:12:55
    really think that all reasoning
  • 00:12:57
    fundamentally is based on subrational
  • 00:13:00
    urges and that we can't analyze those
  • 00:13:02
    urges and there isn't real reason that
  • 00:13:04
    we can judge uh on based on evidence and
  • 00:13:08
    that we can't be self-critical then that
  • 00:13:10
    destroys freudianism just like it
  • 00:13:12
    destroys everything
  • 00:13:14
    else shortly after Lewis accepted
  • 00:13:17
    Christianity he sazed Freud in his
  • 00:13:19
    allegory the Pilgrim's regress in
  • 00:13:22
    Lewis's Story the main character John
  • 00:13:25
    ends up being thrown in jail by a
  • 00:13:27
    character named zigmund enlight
  • 00:13:30
    zigmund was actually Sigman Freud's real
  • 00:13:32
    first name he ended up shortening it
  • 00:13:34
    later and so this was very much a parody
  • 00:13:37
    of Freud and but what is this jail that
  • 00:13:39
    he's thrown into well it's a jail
  • 00:13:42
    governed by this giant and this giant
  • 00:13:45
    has a particular propensity that
  • 00:13:47
    anything that he looks at becomes
  • 00:13:51
    transparent and so when this Pilgrim
  • 00:13:54
    character is thrown into this dungeon
  • 00:13:58
    into this jail
  • 00:13:59
    it's a jail of Horrors because whenever
  • 00:14:01
    he looks at someone he doesn't see them
  • 00:14:04
    he sees their insides their intestines
  • 00:14:07
    he sees through them and it's horrible
  • 00:14:09
    it's like it's it's like a a you know a
  • 00:14:12
    house of horrors and that was Lewis's
  • 00:14:14
    pictures really of where freudianism
  • 00:14:16
    leads you it if you try to deconstruct
  • 00:14:19
    everything you're left with
  • 00:14:22
    nothing another example of science
  • 00:14:25
    inspired gullibility according to Lewis
  • 00:14:27
    was what he called evolutionism the
  • 00:14:30
    popular idea that matter could magically
  • 00:14:32
    transform itself into complex and
  • 00:14:34
    conscious living things through a blind
  • 00:14:37
    and unguided process Lewis's doubts
  • 00:14:40
    about unguided Evolution went back to
  • 00:14:42
    his days as a soldier in World War I
  • 00:14:45
    while recovering from shrapnel wounds a
  • 00:14:47
    young Lewis read the book creative
  • 00:14:49
    evolution by French natural philosopher
  • 00:14:52
    Orr beron beron questioned the ability
  • 00:14:56
    of Darwin's theory to account for
  • 00:14:58
    complex structures like the human eye
  • 00:15:01
    through a blind process like natural
  • 00:15:04
    [Music]
  • 00:15:06
    selection Lewis believed that
  • 00:15:08
    evolutionism like freudianism contained
  • 00:15:10
    a fatal self-contradiction regarding the
  • 00:15:13
    human mind according to the darwinian
  • 00:15:15
    view reason was simply the unforeseen
  • 00:15:18
    and unintended byproduct of a Mindless
  • 00:15:21
    process based on survival of the fittest
  • 00:15:24
    Lewis pointed out the key difficulty
  • 00:15:26
    with the darwinian account of reason if
  • 00:15:29
    my own mind is a product of the
  • 00:15:31
    irrational he asked how shall I trust my
  • 00:15:34
    mind when it tells me about
  • 00:15:38
    evolution in his personal copy of
  • 00:15:40
    Charles Darwin's autobiography Lewis
  • 00:15:43
    underlined passages where Darwin had
  • 00:15:45
    asked himself the same
  • 00:15:47
    question but then with me the horrid
  • 00:15:49
    doubt always arises whether the
  • 00:15:51
    convictions of a man's mind which has
  • 00:15:54
    been developed from the mind of the
  • 00:15:55
    lower animals are of any value or at all
  • 00:15:58
    trust worthy would anyone trust in the
  • 00:16:01
    convictions of a monkey's mind if there
  • 00:16:03
    are any convictions in such a
  • 00:16:07
    mind what this means is that if natural
  • 00:16:10
    selection in random genetic mutations
  • 00:16:13
    gave rise to our intellectual capacities
  • 00:16:15
    we should assume that our intellectual
  • 00:16:17
    capacities are consistent with survival
  • 00:16:19
    enhancing Behavior but we should have no
  • 00:16:21
    especially good reason to believe that
  • 00:16:23
    we actually know truth or that you know
  • 00:16:25
    we our intellectual faculties even have
  • 00:16:27
    that capacity of connecting ING with
  • 00:16:29
    truth is one of its natural outcomes
  • 00:16:30
    because that's not always designed for
  • 00:16:32
    if anything our reason is just sort of
  • 00:16:35
    along for the ride with our survival
  • 00:16:37
    enhancing behaviors which natural
  • 00:16:39
    selection over millions of years has
  • 00:16:40
    selected so the implication of lewis'
  • 00:16:43
    argument here is that if naturalism is
  • 00:16:45
    true and the darwinian mechanism more or
  • 00:16:47
    less accounts for our faculties we
  • 00:16:50
    probably shouldn't trust our reason the
  • 00:16:53
    idea that a blind and purposeless
  • 00:16:55
    process without a mind can produce
  • 00:16:57
    things like human beings that have minds
  • 00:16:59
    and produce moral beliefs and things
  • 00:17:01
    that sometimes go against our need for
  • 00:17:04
    physical survival the idea that a
  • 00:17:06
    Mindless process of survival in the
  • 00:17:08
    fittest could create such things really
  • 00:17:11
    was an outlandish one according to Lewis
  • 00:17:14
    uh how could a Mindless process produce
  • 00:17:18
    minds and uh to think that it could
  • 00:17:21
    really was just shows how gullible
  • 00:17:23
    people can be in the name of science 3 2
  • 00:17:29
    1
  • 00:17:41
    [Music]
  • 00:17:53
    zero the third similarity between
  • 00:17:56
    science and Magic according to Lewis is
  • 00:17:58
    the quest for
  • 00:18:04
    power magic was about the quest for
  • 00:18:07
    power magicians wanted to have power
  • 00:18:09
    over the world and over the universe
  • 00:18:12
    they wanted to harness the powers of
  • 00:18:14
    Nature and the the deeper powers of
  • 00:18:17
    nature in order to control it and Lewis
  • 00:18:19
    said that much of modern
  • 00:18:22
    science uh not all but much of modern
  • 00:18:24
    science was actually devoted towards
  • 00:18:25
    power over the world for many people in
  • 00:18:28
    the 20 Century the power of modern
  • 00:18:30
    science was its greatest virtue they
  • 00:18:33
    hoped science would Usher in a new age
  • 00:18:35
    of peace and prosperity a scientific
  • 00:18:40
    Utopia all curves and plastic monsanto's
  • 00:18:44
    House of the future is open to the
  • 00:18:46
    public at Disneyland a four-wing plastic
  • 00:18:48
    shell makes a snug and solid five room
  • 00:18:51
    dwelling designed for a family of four
  • 00:18:53
    and coincidentally it's a fairly typical
  • 00:18:55
    family of four that gets first look a
  • 00:18:57
    family food to store atomically
  • 00:19:00
    irradiated
  • 00:19:03
    food a work surface that includes a
  • 00:19:06
    combination supersonic dishwasher and
  • 00:19:08
    storage
  • 00:19:10
    unit a look at the future looks good ehy
  • 00:19:15
    for the scientific utopians of Lewis's
  • 00:19:17
    era science was the Savior that would
  • 00:19:20
    allow us to remake our world what gets
  • 00:19:23
    under your skin about research is the
  • 00:19:25
    attitude of the men in the lbs they work
  • 00:19:27
    on the principle that nothing is
  • 00:19:29
    impossible you hear that bud oh sure but
  • 00:19:31
    I don't believe it open your eyes bu the
  • 00:19:33
    proofs all around you and of course that
  • 00:19:36
    can be good modern science brings us
  • 00:19:38
    good things uh many things from the
  • 00:19:41
    microwave oven to computers to uh life
  • 00:19:45
    saving treatments of modern medicine
  • 00:19:47
    which Lewis certainly
  • 00:19:49
    appreciated but on the other hand that
  • 00:19:52
    tendency to want to control things can
  • 00:19:54
    bring us the orwellian state of you know
  • 00:19:57
    George Orwell's 1984 and so Lewis
  • 00:20:00
    thought that modern science in fact was
  • 00:20:02
    far more dangerous than magic because
  • 00:20:04
    magic failed you know magic doesn't work
  • 00:20:07
    at the end of the day and so it wasn't
  • 00:20:09
    so dangerous because people actually
  • 00:20:11
    couldn't use it to control the world
  • 00:20:12
    modern science has the potential that
  • 00:20:14
    you really can control uh people if you
  • 00:20:16
    find the right drugs or find the right
  • 00:20:18
    treatments you can manipulate them and
  • 00:20:20
    so if you don't have some other way of
  • 00:20:23
    protecting and limiting what you do in
  • 00:20:26
    the name of science some ethical basis
  • 00:20:28
    that isn't dictated by science itself
  • 00:20:30
    that can control it then you are facing
  • 00:20:34
    a really Bleak uh future Lewis's
  • 00:20:38
    critique of scientific utopianism was at
  • 00:20:40
    the heart of his novel That Hideous
  • 00:20:42
    Strength which tells the story of a
  • 00:20:44
    conspiracy to transform England into a
  • 00:20:47
    scientific dictatorship the conspiracy
  • 00:20:50
    is led by a government bureaucracy with
  • 00:20:52
    the deceptively innocuous name of the
  • 00:20:54
    National Institute of coordinated
  • 00:20:56
    experiments or nice
  • 00:20:59
    I think that That Hideous Strength and
  • 00:21:01
    huxley's Brave New World are the two
  • 00:21:04
    greatest dystopias in our language in
  • 00:21:07
    the 20th century the agenda of nice in
  • 00:21:10
    That Hideous Strength reads like a wish
  • 00:21:13
    list drawn up by the eras leading
  • 00:21:15
    scientific social reformers it included
  • 00:21:18
    sterilization of the
  • 00:21:20
    unfit selective
  • 00:21:22
    breeding biochemical
  • 00:21:24
    conditioning experimentation on both
  • 00:21:27
    animals and criminals
  • 00:21:29
    and above all truly scientific planning
  • 00:21:32
    a scientific planning that is pretending
  • 00:21:35
    to uh to uh provide a new Humanity that
  • 00:21:39
    is doing away with traditional ethics
  • 00:21:41
    that is doing away with all traditional
  • 00:21:43
    restraints
  • 00:21:45
    [Music]
  • 00:22:04
    Lewis depicts a world in That Hideous
  • 00:22:07
    Strength In which nothing is sacred um
  • 00:22:11
    Daniel Bellis told us that the essence
  • 00:22:13
    of modernity is that nothing is
  • 00:22:16
    [Music]
  • 00:22:23
    sacred in in the abolition of man and
  • 00:22:26
    also in That Hideous Strength we see the
  • 00:22:28
    consequence of a world in which nothing
  • 00:22:30
    is sacred which includes the human
  • 00:22:33
    person the human person is not sacred
  • 00:22:35
    and when that happens there are no
  • 00:22:37
    distinctions between individuals or
  • 00:22:40
    humans and animals or humans and
  • 00:22:41
    vegetables or humans and minerals and we
  • 00:22:44
    have the kind of thing we've had in the
  • 00:22:45
    20th
  • 00:22:48
    century in the two decades before his
  • 00:22:50
    death Lewis became increasingly alarmed
  • 00:22:52
    by the rise of scientific
  • 00:22:56
    authoritarianism Lewis was very
  • 00:22:57
    concerned by the dogmatic use of Science
  • 00:23:00
    and that is why he wrote his novel That
  • 00:23:03
    Hideous Strength that is why he wrote
  • 00:23:06
    his book the abolition of man where he
  • 00:23:08
    actually worries and and somewhat sort
  • 00:23:11
    of predicts the rise of a new class of
  • 00:23:13
    speak people of experts speaking in the
  • 00:23:16
    name of science who would dictate to
  • 00:23:19
    everyone else in fact by the end of his
  • 00:23:21
    life Lewis was worrying about the rise
  • 00:23:24
    of what he called
  • 00:23:26
    scientocracy uh government and Society
  • 00:23:29
    that claims to be based on the claims of
  • 00:23:31
    modern science but in reality really is
  • 00:23:34
    based on a scientific click of a few
  • 00:23:36
    people who are speaking in the name of
  • 00:23:38
    Science and maybe they are adopting the
  • 00:23:41
    majority view of science but they're
  • 00:23:42
    claiming the right to rule based on
  • 00:23:45
    their scientific knowledge and
  • 00:23:49
    [Music]
  • 00:23:54
    expertise ls's concern about
  • 00:23:56
    authoritarian science seems eerily
  • 00:23:59
    prophetic
  • 00:24:03
    [Music]
  • 00:24:26
    [Music]
  • 00:24:52
    [Music]
  • 00:24:58
    [Music]
  • 00:25:04
    [Music]
  • 00:25:20
    [Music]
  • 00:25:22
    in a world driven by science and
  • 00:25:24
    technology those who question the New
  • 00:25:26
    Order like CS Lewis did increasingly
  • 00:25:29
    find themselves labeled
  • 00:25:31
    anti-science CS Lewis would have
  • 00:25:33
    rejected the
  • 00:25:36
    charge Lewis did not accept uh the idea
  • 00:25:39
    that that science was a special form of
  • 00:25:41
    knowledge that was somehow immune to
  • 00:25:43
    inspection that was some somehow uh
  • 00:25:46
    cordoned off from the
  • 00:25:48
    non-specialist uh assessing uh the
  • 00:25:51
    deliverances of the Sciences Lewis was
  • 00:25:54
    well aware that uh first of all that
  • 00:25:56
    there's no such thing as science as such
  • 00:25:58
    there are science says and each science
  • 00:26:01
    has its particular methods uh and its
  • 00:26:04
    particular areas of
  • 00:26:05
    study uh and also that that uh the
  • 00:26:08
    science says to be good need to interact
  • 00:26:11
    with one another but they do so uh by by
  • 00:26:15
    means of the larger tools of good uh
  • 00:26:17
    rational critical thinking uh and so
  • 00:26:20
    that the the um the things that the
  • 00:26:23
    scientists say are subject to review by
  • 00:26:27
    by everyone who is able to think well to
  • 00:26:29
    think critically to think
  • 00:26:32
    rationally Lewis did not deny that
  • 00:26:34
    scientific expertise might be necessary
  • 00:26:36
    for good public policy in many areas but
  • 00:26:40
    he insisted that science alone was not
  • 00:26:43
    sufficient knowing say how things work
  • 00:26:46
    knowing how cells work or knowing uh how
  • 00:26:50
    ecosystems work doesn't tell you what
  • 00:26:53
    you ought to do for your Society because
  • 00:26:56
    public policy is not just about the
  • 00:26:58
    technical expertise of how things work
  • 00:27:01
    it's about what good is worth having at
  • 00:27:04
    what price and as CS Lewis pointed out
  • 00:27:06
    on these questions a scientific training
  • 00:27:09
    gives you no added value scientists are
  • 00:27:11
    not moral philosophers yet political and
  • 00:27:14
    social judgments involve not just how do
  • 00:27:17
    things work and how can we make them
  • 00:27:18
    work better but uh how should we act and
  • 00:27:23
    what's worth spending money on and
  • 00:27:26
    what's worth doing and um what freedoms
  • 00:27:30
    are worth giving up or
  • 00:27:34
    not and on these sorts of moral and
  • 00:27:37
    ethical questions someone's science
  • 00:27:39
    training doesn't give them the right to
  • 00:27:41
    dictate to the rest of society
  • 00:27:50
    [Music]
  • 00:28:06
    CS Lewis thought that science was a good
  • 00:28:09
    thing but he also thought that it held
  • 00:28:11
    some really strong dangers the biggest
  • 00:28:15
    danger really was the pensent to control
  • 00:28:18
    uh in a scientific view if you think
  • 00:28:20
    that is the only way that we have
  • 00:28:22
    knowledge of the world and so uh if you
  • 00:28:25
    think that if I have the scientific
  • 00:28:27
    truth about something that's you know
  • 00:28:29
    end of story I know everything that
  • 00:28:32
    really tends to feed a Power Trip
  • 00:28:34
    whether you're a scientist or you're a
  • 00:28:36
    politician who's trying to latch on to
  • 00:28:38
    The Prestige of science uh you really
  • 00:28:41
    have people who are going to abuse their
  • 00:28:43
    power because they think look we're the
  • 00:28:45
    only ones who know what should happen
  • 00:28:48
    because we know how the universe really
  • 00:28:50
    works therefore we should be able to
  • 00:28:52
    dictate uh what our cultural beliefs are
  • 00:28:55
    we should dictate what uh our government
  • 00:28:58
    should do how we should design
  • 00:29:00
    governmental programs we should dictate
  • 00:29:03
    uh all manner of public policy and the
  • 00:29:06
    anyone who doesn't have a scientific
  • 00:29:07
    training or isn't part of the consensus
  • 00:29:09
    view of science is basically stupid or
  • 00:29:12
    against progress or against science and
  • 00:29:14
    so should be really swept by the wayside
  • 00:29:16
    and shouldn't be listened to and I think
  • 00:29:19
    Lewis thought that that almost
  • 00:29:21
    totalitarian impulse was really a
  • 00:29:24
    dangerous thing
  • 00:29:29
    Lewis I think was properly so frightened
  • 00:29:33
    by that uh potential within science and
  • 00:29:36
    that's why he stressed why we really
  • 00:29:38
    need a way to understand the limits of
  • 00:29:40
    Science and that uh there is something
  • 00:29:44
    behind science a larger Transcendent
  • 00:29:47
    ethical sphere behind science uh and
  • 00:29:50
    that we aren't just blind matter and
  • 00:29:51
    motion that we're part of a designed
  • 00:29:53
    universe that actually sets limits on
  • 00:29:56
    what we should and shouldn't do
  • 00:30:00
    it's an age-old problem how do we
  • 00:30:02
    prevent something good from being
  • 00:30:04
    Twisted for evil ends CS Lewis hoped
  • 00:30:08
    that scientists themselves would find a
  • 00:30:10
    way to rescue science from scientism
  • 00:30:13
    creating a regenerate science that
  • 00:30:15
    respected human rights and honored human
  • 00:30:17
    dignity a science that would no longer
  • 00:30:20
    be the magician twin
  • 00:30:23
    [Music]
  • 00:30:24
    [Applause]
  • 00:30:26
    [Music]
Tags
  • CS Lewis
  • scientism
  • science and ethics
  • scientific authoritarianism
  • modern science
  • magic
  • power
  • skepticism
  • ethics
  • humanity