The Poison of Subjectivism

This must have been the most difficult reading for me to understand since beginning this course. Although one particular paragraph did stick out to me. Lewis speaks about the law of nature again, he says that the modern belief that ethics vary from culture to culture is a lie. This goes back to his belief that our moral code is more engrained in us than it is culture bound. He explains that through history themes of mercy and justice appear and most cultures are the same. He explains the differences as “blindnesses in particular cultures,” but he doesn’t believe that they are completely different.

Now back to the matter of subjectivism and objectivism. I have to admit that I was very unclear on Lewis’ views regarding subjectivism so I started to poke around others’ blogs to try and get a better idea of what he was trying to convey. While reading my peers blogs I found Kim Schmitkons’ explanation very helpful. She said that “if a person says that there is no good and evil he is already being subjective.” This really helped me to put subjectivism into the right perspective. I believe what she was saying (and I hope she would correct me if I am wrong) is that when one is trying to prevent subjectivism they will ignore the natural law, but by doing so they are actually being subjective.

It is made very clear at the end of the essay that Lewis is in favor of objectivism when he says “if we returned to the objective view we should demand qualities much rarer, and much more beneficial – virtue, knowledge, diligence, and skill.”These qualities all sound very profound and things that need to be thought out, and one can see that Lewis would prefer that these qualities, with objectivism, would be favored instead of those that are subjective.