Was C.S. Lewis a Rational Determinist?

Abstract

In his recently published book C. S. Lewis (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), Stewart Goetz argues that C.S. Lewis endorsed a form of rational determinism, according to which we are causally determined to draw the conclusions we do. Our inferences are not within our control; they happen to us whether we like it or not. If Goetz is right, then incredibly we must say that reasoning is not something Lewis ever did. I shall attempt to show that (taken in context) the texts to which Goetz appeals fail to support his thesis. In fact, upon closer analysis, they indicate precisely the opposite: Lewis was no rational determinist.