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We are also reminded by some critics that elite ideas are not
"the totality of meaningful ideas in a society ." Of course, the elite
ideas are not the totality of meaningful ideas.
If
they were, they
wouldn't be elite. Yet this tautology is put forward as an objection to
the course in Western Culture . There is a wide variety of courses in
sociology, politics, anthropology, economic history , etc . in which
other aspects of a culture can and should be studied.
It
is doubtful
that any course can do justice to "the totality of meaningful ideas," if
that phrase is itself meaningful. Nor is it true that the course on
Western Culture is in any way apologetic for Western imperialism
or American chauvinism (there is not a single American book on the
Stanford list-does that make the course un-American?) or even for
political democracy. Personally I believe it can be established that
political democracy in the modern world owes more to the dissenting
churches and trade unions than to most of the classical tradition.
The justification for the study of great works of Western culture is
not political although it may contribute to our political sophistica–
tion . It gives no warrant to the oft-repeated charge that the program
devoted to a critical study of these works "propounds white male
values and slights the contributions of women and minority groups
to the development of the Western tradition ."
The menace to the integrity of the educational process becomes
more manifest in the primitive and mistaken view about how human
beings learn . This is reflected in the demand by some critics of the
existing program that faculty be recruited from "women and people
of color" to study ideas and aspects of culture that involve them. Sad
to say, even the group which originally opposed the emasculation of
the program in Western Culture, in an effort to save it, com–
promised its principles and urged that books by "women and people
of color" be added to the core list of readings.
Where ideas are concerned, the primary consideration should
be mastery of subject matter and not identification with the subject
studied. One does not have to be a German to study Luther or the
German Reformation or be sympathetic to the Nazis to study Hitler.
As well argue that men cannot be gynecologists, that only women
are best qualified to study family law or that only fat physicians can
study obesity or hungry people the phenomenom of starvation, as
that only people of color and women are uniquely qualified to do
justice to the place, achievement, and oppression of minorities and
their culture, wherever relevant , in Western culture. One of the
greatest contributions to the exposure and struggle against racism in
