Monday, August 9, 2010

great books canon

Praise of the Great Books in no way discourages the study of other cultures which may indeed deserve even greater coverage than they now have. There have been great civilizations in China, India, Japan, Egypt, Persia, Turkey, in the Inca and Mayan civilizations of the Americas, etc. There is Buddism, Hinduism, and Islamic religion. These things all deserve to be part of a serious curriculum. And their study will teach the detractors of Western Civilization several valuable lessons. They will learn that all of the above believed in natural inequality, not "structural inequality." They will also learn that only within Western Civilization does one find the principles that attack and invalidate racism, sexism, and other injustices. That one finds injustice in the West is not an argument against the principles of Western Civilization but a sign that many individuals are slaves to their passions, emotions, and prejudices, and impervious to the liberating and emancipating influence of reason.

If its detractors return to Western Civilization with an open mind, they will even find an attack on sexism, classism and other injustices as early as Plato's Republic, an argument for complete equality of the sexes and the abolition of private property. The Republic also presents an argument that maintains that only Reason entitles one to rule, not race, sex or social class. Taking Western Civilization seriously will also demonstrate that in all non-Western civilizations there is substantial cultural homogeneity. This is precisely because non-Western cultures are "closed." Closure is what binds all culture not influenced by Greek thought and/or the Bible. Only a Westener would feel guilty about being told he or she was ethnocentric—another favorite buzz word along with such other popular "centrisms" as phono-, logo-, and phallo-. If we were to tell a Mayan, pigmy, or aborigine that he is ethnocentric we would be met with incomprehension; "our ways are the way of the universe." Even if one could explain the concept ethnocentrism, the response would be, of course we are ethnocentric, that is what it means to have a culture. However, closure is a vice if one happens to be a proponent of Western Civilization—then one is chided for being insufficiently "open." These are the issues to which the study of the Great Books will alert us.

- Gregory Smith


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