Was CS Lewis referencing the uncanny valley?

Question

I recently learned about the concept of the [uncanny valley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley), and it immediately reminded me of the following passage from *The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe*, Chapter 8 (emphasis mine):> "No, no, there isn't a drop of real human blood in the Witch." > "That's why she's bad all through, Mr Beaver," said Mrs Beaver. > "True enough, Mrs Beaver," replied he, "there may be two views about humans (meaning no offence to the present company). But there's no two views about things that look like humans and aren't." > "I've known good Dwarfs," said Mrs Beaver. > "So've I, now you come to speak of it," said her husband, "but precious few, and they were the ones least like men. But in general, take my advice, **when you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now, or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.**"Was CS Lewis making a deliberate reference to the philosophical concept of the "uncanny valley?" For that matter, did the latter idea even exist back then - and if not, did it have a precursor, a related philosophical idea known about in Lewis's day, which did inspire him to write this?

Answer 1

As the Wikipedia article points out, the uncanny valley concept was introduced in 1970 and referred to robots. Therefore, the concept would not have been around back then. For a precursor, I don't think there would be one in CS Lewis' lifetime. All of the man-made humanoid objects were distinctly robotic.

In my opinion, I could see this having a reference in his Christian background.