The Poison of Subjectivism

Before I get too far let me first state that I do not pretend to understand everything that Lewis was getting at in this essay. What I do claim however is that I do understand some of the dangers that he is warning us about in this essay. The main thing Lewis warns us about is that by making our morals something we can look at subjectively we make them something that can be altered on our whims. He uses the Nazis as an example stating that they redefined justice as what was best for the Third Reich and I think all of us can see why what happened there can be viewed as dangerous. He also says that on entirely different levels this is impossible because we cannot measure or morals against something that changes with them we need a single solid unchanging universal measuring stick which he believes all of humanity has already. Weather we believe this or not it can be seen everywhere as all people when in violation of this un written code either justify their actions or try and think of a reason why the rules should not apply to them, and believe me if there is something that persists in human nature it is that. Lewis also warns us about the danger of throwing away all of the old morals and substituting new ones he says that once you throw away all of the old morals whatever justification you used to do so also prevents the reinsertion of new ones. He says that “This whole attempt to jettison traditional values as something subjective and to substitute a new scheme of values for them is wrong. It is like trying to lift yourself by your own coat collar.” Which although is something interesting to act out in public is not something that is physically possible. In short we cannot abandon our morals and substitute new ones based on evidence both in the past and the fact that any attempt to do so is based entirely on circular reasoning.