Scribd
Upload
743 views

Lesson 34

C.S. Lewis believed that modern science is more dangerous than magic for three reasons: 1) People have automatic credulity in anything said to be science, similar to how people believed witch doctors. 2) Both science and magic seek power over the world, but science can actually control and manipulate things through technologies and drugs. 3) While magic failed, science works and can be misused by those in power to control others through propaganda or other means, as seen with the rise of scientocracy.

Uploaded by

rjay manalo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
743 views

Lesson 34

C.S. Lewis believed that modern science is more dangerous than magic for three reasons: 1) People have automatic credulity in anything said to be science, similar to how people believed witch doctors. 2) Both science and magic seek power over the world, but science can actually control and manipulate things through technologies and drugs. 3) While magic failed, science works and can be misused by those in power to control others through propaganda or other means, as seen with the rise of scientocracy.

Uploaded by

rjay manalo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

He compares it to magic in a way that, in stories, people would believe anything a witch doctor

would say and magical thinking can promote a type of credulous thinking. Comparing that in the
modern days, people will automatically believe anything, as long as it’s in the name of science,
or from science. For him one of the leading examples of science fuelled credulity was
Freudianism and Evolutionism.

2.3 science as power


This is the third similarity of science and magic, which is the quest for power. Comparing
science to magic, magic, was almost always about the quest of power, as magicians wanted
power over the world and universe, they wanted to harness the power of nature to control it. He
stated that much of modern science was focused towards power over the world. Science can give
people the tendency to control things which is why it can be used as power.

3. Why did C.S. Lewis think that modern science is far more dangerous than magic?

He thought that modern science is far more dangerous than magic simply because magic failed,
and that magic doesn’t work at the end of the day and so it wasn’t so dangerous because people
couldn’t use it to control world. On the other hand, modern science is truly dangerous because
there is a potential that you can’t control people. When people have the correct combination of
things or drugs, they can certainly do what they please and can actually use it to take over the
world and manipulate it.

4. Why did C.S. Lewis become increasingly concerned about the rise of scientocracy?
How does scientocracy relate to scientism?

Scientocracy is the government and society claiming the right to rule based on their scientific
knowledge and expertise, which he says is a new class of people of experts, speaking in the name
of science who would dictate to everyone else. He was concerned by the wrong use of science,
which is why he became increasingly concerned about it. It relates to scientism since it can be
used in the wrong way and for the wrong purpose. Wrong information or little information can
be abused and used to dictate and manipulate others.

You might also like