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The Dartmouth
July 21, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

The Human Canon

A typical feature of the conservative critique of modern universities is a defense of the "Western Canon" as literature of preeminent worth. Some have argued that too many books are taught because of their political and ethnic significance, and not because of their aesthetic value.

Dartmouth has partially accommodated this critique with its Humanities 1 and 2 courses (which, if you're a freshman, I highly recommend), but I am not convinced that too much additional change is necessary I think there is a major flaw in conservative arguments for the indispensability of Occidental works. We need to read the actual classics of other major civilizations: the Koran and Confucius's "Analects" should be listed on the same syllabus as Shakespeare, Dante and the Bible.

It is not only the Western canon that demands our attention. Obviously, since most of us were born into Western cultures, and nourished by their artistic products, it makes sense that we should seek to read from them in order to understand ourselves. But our definition of a canonical work must extend beyond Western literature. There needs to be a Human Canon.

William Blake observed, "The ages are all equal, but genius is always above its age."

The same is true of cultures they are equal, but genius transcends them. Genius asserts itself across time. We are able to mine works like the "Tao Te Ching" or the book of Job for wisdom today, even though we are not living in ancient China or Israel.

The Human Canon already exists. Its works comprise everything of serious value that has ever been written, outlasting and transcending the books of the hour. It extends far beyond any arbitrary geographical boundaries, encompassing the globe and surmounting the distinctions of East and West. When people restrict themselves to reading only the Western canon, they are playing identity politics, as are those who insist we are wasting our time by reading politicized works of minor aesthetic value solely for their ethnic attributes.

The knowledge of ourselves and of others that we gain from Western literature is excellent, but if we wish to understand the souls of people who exist beyond the boundaries of our own culture, we need to examine the lenses they use to understand themselves and we must study the most intensely focused lenses.

The Koran is one such lens, and is an especially salient example of a timeless work that badly needs our understanding. All manner of misinformation is dispersed about the Koran. Does the Koran say that all men should beat their wives? Not exactly. Does it say that martyrs get 72 virgins in paradise? Certainly not. Without doubt, it is a book written within the social confines of seventh-century Arabia, but its reverberations are felt in the present day, because its message and sense of fulfillment are so powerful.

Since roughly 1.5 billion people ostensibly seek to live a life based on the Koran's timeless message, can we afford to ignore it? How we understand the Koran makes a huge difference in how we understand those 1.5 billion people, and the ways in which they read, or misread, it.

Confucius's message still resonates in the daily realities of Chinese life, and the rich mythology of "The Ramayana" is of major importance in India. It is obvious that we must read the Human Canon if we are ever to fully understand how human nature works, and how it expresses itself in myriad forms according to the conventions and necessities of its time. Ultimately, reading the Canon is the only way we can expand our own experience to encompass that of other selves the souls of people living in wildly divergent settings.

The great American author Ralph Ellison was disappointed when critics insisted on considering his classic novel, "Invisible Man," a work of "American Negro" fiction, and not simply a work of fiction.

He said of his novel, "It's like jazz; there's no inherent problem which prohibits understanding but the assumptions brought to it. We don't all dig Shakespeare uniformly The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life."

Ellison wanted reviewers to extend their humanity far enough to understand his experience as though it were part of their own. Our challenge that of engaging the Human Canon is much the same.