A Reply to John Searle and Other Traditionalists (Personal Perspective) (Critical Essay‪)‬

In an article entitled Traditionalists & Their Challengers, (1) John Searle says there is "supposed to be a major debate" in the universities as to whether liberal education should be replaced with multiculturalism. (2) He finds this debate "puzzling," "disappointing," even "depressing." By dividing academia into two groups, the so-called "defenders of the tradition" and their "challengers," Searle says he hopes to "expose some common core assumptions of each side ... by stating naively, the traditionalists' view of higher education and equally naively, the most obvious of the challengers' objections to it." (3) Despite such claims to offer an even-handed approach to the debate, Searle unfairly and inaccurately represents challengers' assumptions. Like other traditionalists, Searle believes something will be lost if changes are made to the canon. A "standard" will be lowered, or worse--eliminated, if we make adjustments here. According to the traditionalists, there is a "body of works of philosophy, literature, history, and art that goes from the Greeks right up to the present day ... [w]e call this the Western intellectual tradition." (4) The debate turns on an objection to this "tradition"; challengers argue that it is too restrictive, too exclusive, and not open to new membership. When you look closely at the canon, you immediately notice that it is comprised of almost nothing but dead, White, European males.