What Is Western Civilization
An excerpt from Reisman’s pamphlet Education and the Racist Road to Barbarism,
p. 4.
From
the perspective of intellectual and cultural content, Western civilization represents
an understanding and acceptance of the following: the laws of logic; the
concept of causality and, consequently, of a universe ruled by natural laws
intelligible to man; on these foundations, the whole known corpus of the laws
of mathematics and science; the individual’s self-responsibility based on his
free will to choose between good and evil; the value of man above all other
species on the basis of his unique possession of the power of reason; the value
and competence of the individual human being and his corollary possession of
individual rights, among them the right to life, liberty, property, and the
pursuit of happiness; the need for limited government and for the individual’s
freedom from the state; on this entire preceding foundation, the validity of
capitalism, with its unprecedented and continuing economic development in terms
of division of labor, technological progress, capital accumulation, and rising
living standards; in addition, the importance of visual arts and literature
depicting man as capable of facing the world with confidence in his power to
succeed, and music featuring harmony and melody.
