In his analogy, "man" is head, heart (chest), belly (the animal nature, the instincts). To be all head, without aknowledging the animal part of us, is to be cold, unfeeling, rational, all "philosophical" and abstract. To be all "belly" is to be but an animal, serving our most basic and base instincts, without regard to the needs and rights of other people. The "heart" (chest) of man is the part of us that balances the head and the belly so that we are truly human/ man.
To fail to be fully human is to be on our way to extermination as a race. Men without "chests" are those like Hitler who want to design a master race, and so must eliminate those who do not fit into his vision of uberman. Men whose god is their belly/ animal comfort/ convenience have no feeling or regard for those they trample in the dust as they grab the best for themselves: men abuse women for their sense of power or lust; greed and corruption fill the coffers of the those in power; and the rich ignore the hungry at their doorstep.
Proverbs 4:23 says: Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life.
Educating the heart of man means balancing science with sensitivity, history with reflection on its meaning, and mathematics with appreciation of the beauty of the universe. Technology without the limits of the Tao (the universal Law) becomes "technocracy" -- the rule of those in power over those without. In reflecting on "Our English Syllabus," Lewis said this:
Human life means to me the life of beings for whom the leisure activities of thought, art, literature, conversation are the end, and the preservation and propagation of life merely the means. That is why education seems to me so important: it actualizes that potentiality for leisure, if you like for amateurishness, which is man's prerogative. You have noticed, I hope, that man is the only amateur animal; all the others are professionals....The lion cannot stop hunting, nor the beaver making dams, nor the bee making honey. When God made the beasts dumb, He saved the world from infinite boredom, for if they could speak, they would all of them, all day, talk nothing but shop.
We have already cut recess from many of our schools, along with art, music, and religion. We are well on our way to developing men without chests---the abolition of man.
I believe that we, first, have to realize our full potential as animals, able to feed, protect, and clothe ourselves and our young, before we take the time for the pursuits of the leisure class. We must also stop pretending that all people are meant to practice the liberal arts. Fairness would dictate that we honor the cook, babysitter, and janitor with rates of homage in the form of pay that would allow them to rise to some time of leisure. Then, maybe they would also embrace the arts, physical fitness, music, and philosophy (religion).
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