658
PARTISAN REVIEW
primitive and mistaken especially in the demand that faculty be
recruited from "women and people of color" to study ideas and
aspects of culture that involve them. Where ideas are concerned, the
primary consideration is mastery of subject matter and not iden–
tification with the subject studied . One does not have to be German
to study Luther or the German Reformation or sympathetic to the
Nazis to study Hitler. As well argue that men cannot be gynecolo–
gists, that only women are best qualified to study family law, or that
only fat physicians can study obesity or hungry people the phenome–
non of starvation, as that only people of color and women are
uniquely qualified to do justice to the place , achievement , and op–
pression of minorities and their culture, wherever relevant, in
Western culture . One of the greatest contributions to the exposure
and struggle against racism in the United States was made by Gun–
nar Myrdal-a Swedish white man . Race, color, religion , national
origin, and sexual orientation are neither necessary nor sufficient
conditions for the fruitful study of the humanities or any subject
matter. In scholarship as in sports today - alas! it was not always
so! - the quest should always be for the best qualified .
Scholars in the natural and medical sciences may feel that aber–
rant notions such as those I have described above can prevail only in
the soft disciplines of the humanities and social studies . Let them not
delude themselves.
If
such views are not laid to rest , wherever they
manifest themselves, they will make their presence felt in recruiting
in the natural and medical sciences as well . In some of these fields in
the past there have been disgraceful and invidious practices of dis–
crimination on the basis of race, religion , and sex . The abolition of
discrimination must not be a preface to any kind of reverse discrimi–
nation. In some areas we are already hearing criticism of the concept
of objectivity and culture-free criteria of scientific validity and claims
about the "efficiency of non-Western medical systems" which pre–
sumably should be integrated into the curriculum of our medical
schools.
Many features of the proposed reform of the current course in
Western culture are of dubious educational value when contrasted
with their educational alternatives . Two of them are fatal to any
worthwhile course . The first is the absence of a core of required texts
in all tracks . The second is the restriction of the time period to be
covered in the studies to 500 years , which in effect gives the impres–
sion that Western culture today is the residue of the cultural
achievements of the 15th century to the present. Would it were so!
