The problem of soul and self: C. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre debate the soul, consciousness, personal identity, and the self

No scholar has yet to conduct a study that makes a systematic presentation of C. S. Lewis' understanding of the self. Such a study is important because it fills in gaps in our understanding of Lewis' thought and sheds light on other areas of his work. This thesis seeks to help Lewis scholars gain new insights into Lewis' thought by filling in gaps left open by current Lewis research. Scholars and laypersons who are attempting, as Christians, to understand the role of the self in modern and postmodern environments also gain by possessing a systematic account of Lewis' thought concerning the self. I examine Lewis' thought within four categories: the soul, consciousness, personal identity, and selfhood.;Lewis did not lay out his thoughts concerning these areas in any systematic fashion. For this reason, Lewis' thoughts are compared to those of others because they help provide structure to his own thoughts. For the soul, Lewis' thoughts are compared to those of most Evangelical Christians, who comprise a great portion of Lewis' readers. For the remaining sections, his thoughts are compared to those of atheistic, existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.;Concerning the soul, Lewis departed significantly from Evangelical thought. He rejected the notion that a soul is an immaterial substance that survives death and carries personal identity into an afterlife. Instead, he developed the doctrine that the soul is dependent on a body for its existence.;Lewis and Sartre agreed very little concerning consciousness, personal identity, and selfhood. They disagreed about whether there is a transcendental ego behind consciousness, whether consciousness has contents, whether there is such a thing as a stable character that retains identity through change, and what the purpose of selfhood ultimately is. For Sartre, a self must recognize its own freedom and take responsibility for its own existence. For Lewis, a person must give up responsibility for his or her own self by accepting the authority of God.;Ultimately, this study will conclude that Lewis' own views on these topics were formed by uniquely combining the ideas of theorists that worked prior to himself. Kant held a particularly heavy influence over him, but Lewis also included ideas from Plato, Medieval Christianity, and modern depth psychology. Perhaps his most novel element is the priority that he gave to sense experience in the life and afterlife of individuals, especially as it is related to the soul. Oftentimes, sensuous factors have been downplayed in Christian theory, but Lewis does not shy away from the importance of this element. Overall, Lewis shows great understanding and creativity in the way that he develops these themes.