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Christian Student Survival Conference:
Helping Students Thrive in College

Sponsored by the University of Georgia - Christian Faculty Forum

Christian Student Survival Conference

Session 6: Political Correctness - 
Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Western Culture's Got to Go!

Dr. Peter G. Klein

Dr. Peter G. Klein is assistant professor of economics at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, where he teaches industrial economics, the economics of organization, and law and economics. His research focuses on the theory of the firm and public policy toward business. His work has appeared in the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Economic Inquiry, The Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, the Electricity Journal, and other scholarly journals and books. He also serves as Associate Editor of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, published by the University of Chicago Press. Klein joined the Georgia faculty in 1995 after receiving his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a Bradley Fellow and Olin Award Recipient. In 1997 he received the G. P. Swift Award for Outstanding Teaching in Undergraduate Economics and the Charles B. Knapp Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction, both awarded by UGA. He lives with his wife Sandy and his son Cole (age 2) in Athens, where he teaches an adult Sunday School class at Prince Avenue Baptist Church. Dr. Klein's web site is: www.terry.uga.edu/~pklein

In recent years the traditional curriculum in the humanities and social sciences—designed to teach the core values of Western Civilization—has come under attack. Multiculturalism, feminism, environmentalism, Marxism, homosexual activism, and other "politically correct" isms have largely replaced the Judeo-Christian worldview as acceptable foundations for academic research and teaching. This lecture exposes the nature and consequences of these alternative worldviews, shows how they have politicized and weakened the curriculum, and suggests reforms designed to restore more traditional approaches.

Session 6 Notes

1. Introduction: What is "political correctness"?
a. Origins of the term

b. Christianity and the traditional university canon

c. Stanford University, 1990

2. Foundations of political correctness
a. Postmodernism

b. Moral and scientific relativism

c. Multiculturalism

3. Consequences of political correctness
a. Today’s college curriculum
i. Race, gender, and culture

ii. Marxism

iii. Gay and lesbian studies

iv. Religion and "spirituality"

b. Politics, society, and culture
i. The effects of the Academy on society

ii. Environmentalism: the new religion

iii. L’affaire Lewinsky: moral relativism in action

4. Restoring Western Civilization
a. Political Correctness and the public

b. P.C. humor

c. The Sokal affair

d. I, Rigoberta Menchú

e. The place of Christianity in the Academy

5. Conclusion
 
 

Suggested readings:

Dinesh D’Souza, Illiberal Education; The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (Free Press, 1991).

George M. Marsden, The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (Oxford University Press, 1996).

Young America’s Foundation, Comedy and Tragedy: College Course Descriptions and What They Tell Us About Higher Education Today (available online)

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Updated: 13 July 2002