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The Benson Center believes that the , wherever it may lead. This pursuit requires that reasonable people of good will be able to make arguments in good faith, even if those arguments are wrong, unpopular, or not in keeping with the political or moral views of others at the university. Our mission requires that we display the utmost toleration for the views of scholars whom we invite to participate in the Center’s academic life. 

To its great credit, the University of Colorado’s guiding principles include a . The Benson Center supports faculty projects promoting the study of Western Civilization from various perspectives. In addition, partly through its Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, the Center aims to increase intellectual and political diversity at CU. Our mission is to promote a civil exchange of views on controversial topics. We believe that the quality and tone of moral and political debate is improved by careful study of opposing viewpoints. John Stuart Mill put this point eloquently: “Only through diversity of opinion is there [...] a chance of fair play to all sides of the truth."
 
In the words of Keith Whittington, author of Speak Freely and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University: "If we are to take seriously the injunction that a more diverse academic community is a benefit because, in part, it adds to the diversity of perspectives that are voiced in class and creates a better learning environment, then we cannot expect a diversity of people and experiences to mingle on a campus without jarring, sometimes heated, and sometimes deep disagreements.”

Prof. Daniel Jacobson
Director, Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization

Benson Center letter following January 6

(Daily Camera)

Western civilization refers to the art, literature, culture, and enduring ideas that emerged from the eastern Mediterranean basin in the centuries before the common era, that developed in myriad forms through the Middle Ages, and that ultimately took modern shape after the Renaissance. From the intellectual speculation of the Greeks emerged the philosophic and scientific thought of Latin and Arabic culture, and eventually the ideals of the early modern Enlightenment. From the Hebrew Bible grew the faiths of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and the ethical framework of modern society. From Greek art and literature emerged the masterpieces of the Renaissance and beyond. (Jacques-Louis David’s painting of the Death of Socrates [above], painted more than two millennia after the historical event, is a famous example.)

One can celebrate the achievements of Western civilization without denigrating the world’s other cultures. Indeed, it is a mark of ignorance, not enlightenment, to make claims of superiority for the culture of “the West” – as if there is some singular excellence about the thread of ideas that gradually made its way out onto the narrow European peninsula that extends westward off the Asian continent. Western civilization has produced much that is undoubtedly great, but also much that is undoubtedly not so great. And how could one even begin to make comparative judgments? Who would be able to say, with any authority, that Plato is a greater political theorist than Mencius? Who could compare The Canterbury Tales to The Tale of Genji? How do we evaluate the art of Picasso against the creations of unknown African masters?

What one can say with confidence is that Western civilization has had a massive influence across the globe, in all domains of life. Not just in the United States, but across the Americas, and indeed on every continent, Western ideas about religion, science, politics, and art have had an unparalleled influence. To understand our planet’s civilization, then, requires an appreciation of  Western civilization. In promoting that, we promote human civilization.