A Philosophical Walking Tour with C. S. Lewis: Why it Did Not Include Rome

Description

Although it has been almost seventy years since Time declared C.S. Lewis one of the world’s most influential spokespersons for Christianity and fifty years since Lewis’s death, his influence remains just as great if not greater today. While much has been written on Lewis and his work, virtually nothing has been written from a philosophical perspective on his views of happiness, pleasure, pain, and the soul and body. As a result, no one so far has recognized that his views on these matters are deeply interesting and controversial, and—perhaps more jarring—no one has yet adequately explained why Lewis never became a Roman Catholic. Stewart Goetz’s careful investigation of Lewis’s philosophical thought reveals oft-overlooked implications and demonstrates that it was, at its root, at odds with that of Thomas Aquinas and, thereby, the Roman Catholic Church. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One Chapter 1 Hedonistic Happiness Common sense and happiness The nature of happiness, good, and evil Euthyphro and action Hedonism The relation between happiness and morality Eudaemonism Possible objections to Lewis’s understanding of happiness Natural law Joy or Sehnsucht Can we really understand the nature of perfect happiness? Chapter 2 Supernatural Persons The body and happiness Lewis’s view of the body Mental-to-mental causation Mental-to-physical causation The soul is the person Once more on common sense The pleasure of the soul Part Two Chapter 3 Privation and Goodness Augustine, Aquinas, and Lewis Augustine’s understanding of evil Aquinas’s understanding of evil Is pain evil? Aquinas’s account of pleasure, happiness, and goodness Eudaemonism and “Good” Lewis and Aquinas Chapter 4 Body and Soul Cartesian dualism Aquinas’s view of the soul Aquinas’s view of the body What would Lewis have thought? The resurrection body’s relationship to pleasure and happiness Lewis, Aquinas, and the soul A section not strictly necessary Part Three Chapter 5 A Rational Journey Why not Roman Catholicism? Conversion and mere Christianity Firmly an Anglican Lack of exposure Homegrown prejudices Vocational aspirations Ignorance of history Difficulties based in reason Thomas Aquinas and Roman Catholicism Common sense, mere Christianity, and Roman Catholicism Conclusion Bibliography Author Index