Although modern Western civilization is inferior to most civilizations in its relationship with nature and because of its "rapidly decaying sense of the sacred," it is still superior to others, said Boston College Philosophy Professor Peter Kreeft yesterday.
Kreeft also warned of the "perils of multiculturalism," which he said has come to mean monoculturalism. "You have to be a left-wing Marxist or whatever is politically correct to be considered multicultural," he said.
About 30 people attended the lecture, which was presented by the Conservative Union at Dartmouth in 28 Silsby Hall.
The author of 35 books and a recognized authority on philosophy, ethics and theology, Kreeft said the greatness of modern Western civilization is due to its roots in the earlier civilizations of Greece and Israel.
He attributed the essential ideas of Western civilization -- universal logic and universal morality -- to these two "postage-size" civilizations. He named Jesus Christ and Socrates as the two most influential people in Western civilization for their contributions of reason, religion and morality.
He associated the rise of Western civilization to this morality and said, "Until reason can lift itself from the primordial waters of the intellect, there is no science."
An expert on St. Thomas Aquinas and C.S. Lewis, Kreeft said modern Western civilization is morally "inferior to itself," and criticized its decaying "sense of the sacred."
We're the loudest civilization in history, but "we have the least inner peace," he said.
He cited moral relativism as a decline from the morality of the earlier Western civilization. He rejected modern Western civilization's suspicion of ideas such as moral absolutes and its confusion of superiority with snobbery.
Specifically, Kreeft criticized American culture as "too proud of itself and not proud enough of its soul." He linked some domestic social problems to "widespread sexual confusion."
Although he noted that all persons are essentially equal, some actions and ideas are better than others, he said in justification of the politically incorrect ideas of superiority and hierarchy.
