EXAMINING THE WORKS OF C.S. LEWIS: CRITICAL THINKING AND ETHICS; United States Air Force Academy, August 26, 2024

Randy Roughton, U.S. Air Force Academy Strategic Communications , United States Air Force Academy; EXAMINING THE WORKS OF C.S. LEWIS: CRITICAL THINKING AND ETHICS

"Twentieth-century author C.S. Lewis’s books dominate the top shelf in Dr. Adam Pelser’s office. Pelser, who was recently recognized as an Inaugural Fellow of the Inklings Project, has used Lewis’ work to teach critical thinking skills and ethics in his Department of Philosophy course since 2018...

Reading with a critical eye

In Pelser’s course, cadets evaluate and discuss the philosophical arguments and themes in some of Lewis’s most influential non-fiction books and essays. They also observe how Lewis interacted with the philosophers and philosophies of his era, including the Oxford philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, and the most noteworthy philosophers in history such as Aristotle, Plato, Immanuel Kant and David Hume.

Cadets read a series of Lewis books and learn to approach them with “a critical eye,” Pelser said. Like their professor, the cadets can raise their objections to Lewis’s arguments and study how the author interacted with his era’s other great thinkers...

Pelser has four goals for each course. First, he wants to deepen an understanding of the philosophical themes in Lewis’ writings. Second is a deeper understanding of the historical and contemporary philosophical influences on Lewis’s thought. The third goal is for cadets to learn to identify and summarize theses and arguments in philosophical texts. Finally, he wants each cadet to write and think through arguments carefully and clearly.

“A major critical thinking component is the dialogue in class when we push each other and challenge ideas,” Pelser said. “That is an important skill they learn in our course.”"