A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
C. S. LewisRead
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding the cause of something is different from justifying it through reason.
C. S. Lewis's quote highlights the distinction between explaining why something happened and validating it as reasonable or acceptable. Merely identifying the cause of an action or event does not serve as a sufficient rationale for its moral or ethical justification, implying that a deeper examination of values and principles is necessary to judge actions justly.
Themes
CauseJustificationReasonPhilosophyEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical debate, one might use this quote to stress the difference between understanding events and justifying actions.
More from C. S. Lewis
All quotes βI enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
C. S. LewisRead
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. LewisRead
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
C. S. LewisRead
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
C. S. LewisRead
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
C. S. LewisRead
Similar quotes
There's a curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists...Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What writers used to do before we were all incorporated.
Don DelilloRead
I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.
Henry JamesRead
Character assassination is at once easier and surer than physical assault; and it involves far less risk for the assassin. It leaves him free to commit the same deed over and over again, and may, indeed, win him the honors of a hero in the country of his victims.
Alan BarthRead
Evolution does not make happiness its goal; it aims simply at evolution and nothing else.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.
Kalpana ChawlaRead