C.S. Lewis's *The Abolition of Man* provides exceptional support for all six of Sterling's philosophical commitments,

 C.S. Lewis's *The Abolition of Man* provides exceptional support for all six of Sterling's philosophical commitments, making it one of the most compatible works in the entire canon:

## **PERFECT ALIGNMENTS (ALL 6 COMMITMENTS):**

### **1. MORAL REALISM (✓✓✓)**

Lewis argues that **the Tao (universal moral law) exists objectively and independently** of human opinion. Through cross-cultural analysis in the appendix, he demonstrates that fundamental moral principles appear universally—suggesting objective moral reality rather than cultural construction. This directly supports Sterling's claim that "virtue is the only genuine good" as discoverable fact, not preference.

**Key passage:** The Tao "admits no development or correction" because it is the standard by which all development and correction are judged.

### **2. ETHICAL INTUITIONISM (✓✓✓)**

The book's central argument is that humans **directly apprehend moral truth through rational reflection**—what Lewis calls "practical reason." Moral knowledge doesn't require empirical investigation or cultural transmission; it's accessible through immediate rational insight. This perfectly supports Sterling's confidence that we can know externals are genuinely indifferent through rational intuition.

**Lewis's insight:** Modern education fails precisely because it teaches that moral statements are subjective expressions rather than truth claims knowable through reason.

### **3. CORRESPONDENCE THEORY (✓✓✓)**

Lewis argues that **moral judgments correspond to or fail to correspond with the Tao**. When someone says "this is good," that statement has a truth value based on objective reality. Modern relativism errs by treating all moral claims as equally valid expressions rather than as truth claims subject to correspondence standards.

This supports Sterling's therapeutic method of correcting "false value beliefs"—some value judgments really are objectively false because they don't correspond to moral reality.

### **4. FOUNDATIONALISM (✓✓✓)**

**The Tao serves as self-evident foundation** for all ethical reasoning. Lewis demonstrates that you cannot rationally critique the Tao from outside it—any rational criticism must assume some moral standards, which ultimately derive from the Tao itself. This provides exactly the systematic starting point Sterling needs for guaranteed conclusions.

**Critical argument:** Those who try to create "new" value systems inevitably smuggle in fragments of the Tao while pretending to reject it entirely.

### **5. SUBSTANCE DUALISM (✓✓✓)**

Lewis distinguishes **rational human nature** (capable of moral knowledge and choice) from mere material existence. Humans can transcend biological conditioning through alignment with objective moral law. The "Conditioners" who try to control others through purely naturalistic means are themselves products of nature—yet they claim to stand outside nature to manipulate it.

This supports Sterling's claim that you are your rational faculty, not your physical circumstances or conditioning.

### **6. LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL (✓✓✓)**

Lewis assumes humans **genuinely choose to align with or rebel against the Tao**. His warning about conditioning humans through psychological manipulation presupposes that genuine moral choice is valuable and possible. The horror of "men without chests" is precisely that they've been conditioned out of their capacity for genuine moral response.

This supports Sterling's claim that we truly control our assent to impressions.

## **WHY THIS BOOK IS CRUCIAL FOR STERLING:**

**Anti-Relativist Foundation:** Lewis systematically refutes the modern view that moral judgments are subjective preferences—the philosophical groundwork essential for Sterling's claim that Stoic value judgments represent discoverable truth rather than therapeutic convenience.

**Educational Critique:** Lewis explains why Sterling's system seems counterintuitive to modern people—they've been educated to distrust objective moral knowledge. The "men without chests" lack the capacity to recognize objective value because their moral intuitions have been systematically undermined.

**Rational Confidence Justified:** The book demonstrates that confidence in objective moral truth is philosophically defensible, not naive dogmatism. This supports Sterling's systematic approach rather than tentative therapeutic language.

**Universal Application:** Lewis argues the Tao applies to all rational beings across all cultures, supporting Sterling's claim that his system works universally rather than just for certain personality types.

**The "Conditioners" Problem:** Lewis warns that those who reject objective value inevitably impose arbitrary values through manipulation—exactly what Sterling would argue happens when people reject rational moral knowledge and substitute subjective preferences.

## **THE LEWIS-STERLING SYNTHESIS:**

*The Abolition of Man* provides the **epistemological foundation** that makes Sterling's practical system philosophically credible. Without objective moral knowledge accessible through reason, Sterling's techniques become arbitrary preference rather than rational discipline.

Lewis proves that what Sterling calls "false value beliefs" really are false—they fail to correspond to objective moral reality (the Tao) that reason can discover. This transforms Sterling's system from interesting ancient wisdom into philosophically defensible truth about human flourishing.

The book essentially argues that modernity's rejection of objective moral knowledge represents **intellectual regression** rather than progress—supporting Sterling's recovery of classical rational confidence in moral truth.