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Copywork
About This Passage
Here Screwtape states the foundation of Hell's whole way of thinking, and it is worth copying because everything else in the letter is built upon it. His starting truth — his 'axiom' — is that one self is simply not another self, so my good can never be yours. From this follows the cold conclusion: 'what one gains another loses.' Copying these three sentences shows a writer how an argument is built on a first principle, and it sets up the Enemy's opposite belief — that the good of one really can be the good of another, which Hell cannot allow.
The whole philosophy of Hell rests on recognition of the axiom that one thing is not another thing, and, specially, that one self is not another self. My good is my good and your good is yours. What o...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell the story of Screwtape's eighteenth letter to Wormwood. What is the 'philosophy of Hell,' what is the Enemy's opposite philosophy, and how do they each see whether people should compete or cooperate?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape says the whole 'philosophy of Hell' rests on the axiom that 'one self is not another self,' so 'what one gains another loses.' What makes this competitive view of life feel realistic or even obvious, and what does the Enemy's idea of love offer that this view can never reach — and why? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- Screwtape insists '"to be" means "to be in competition,"' yet the Enemy 'introduces' the organism, in which the parts 'cooperate.' Is a thing more truly itself when it shuts everything else out or when it joins with others to make a whole — and why? Use details from the letter to Wormwood to develop your answer.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A struggle in which one side wins only if another loses.
Item 2
To work together for a shared good.
Item 3
A living body whose parts work together as one.
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Critical Thinking
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