Most people who say values are just opinions don’t actually believe it. They have values. They defend them. They just save the skepticism for everyone else.
That’s C.S. Lewis’s charge in the second chapter of The Abolition of Man. Caleb and Michael work through his argument: why altruism, self-interest, and instinct all fail to ground morality, and why Lewis thinks you have to appeal to what he calls the Tao, the Way — the shared moral core running through Stoicism, Confucianism, Christianity, and the rest.
(03:00) Subjectivism and Selective Skepticism
(09:00) Epictetus and the Flying Pot
(14:00) Three Failed Groundings: Altruism, Egoism, Instinct
(22:00) The Rebellious Teenager
(27:00) Vegetables, Bricks, and Centipedes
(32:00) Alteration From Within: The Poet and His Language
(37:00) Conservatism and Moral Progress
(42:00) Expanding the Circle: Kymlicka and the Utilitarian Trap
(48:00) The Eight Laws of the Tao
(54:00) Common Sense Morality
Download the Stoa app (it’s a free download): https://stoameditation.com/pod
If you try the Stoa app and find it useful, but truly cannot afford it, email us and we’ll set you up with a free account.
Listen to more episodes and learn more here: https://stoameditation.com/blog/stoa-conversations/
Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations:
