Human Diversity And The Culture Wars

Raising the war on political correctness to a new and higher intellectual level, Philip Devine sheds fresh light on the whole question of cultural standards and the fashionable notion of multiculturalism. While acknowledging the diversity of ways of life and the differing belief systems that arise from and justify those ways of life, the author attacks the current exploitation of diversity to justify a militantly intolerant relativism. His wide-ranging and erudite work connects cultural issues to our real-world existence as biological and historical beings, pulling together ideas of bioethics, education, and the structure and purpose of families. This work will be of interest to those fighting the culture wars across the humanities and social and behavioral sciences.

Raising the war on political correctness to a new and higher intellectual level, Philip Devine sheds fresh light on the whole question of cultural standards and the fashionable notion of multiculturalism.

Booknews

Discusses cultural conflicts in academia in the contemporary US, with sections on the cultural spectrum, four views of human diversity, and implications. Subjects include humanism, the epistemic superiority of the oppressed, creation and evolution, the politics of personhood, and the case against secularism. Includes an essay defining the terms conservatism, culture, modernity, and the secular, plus an extensive bibliography. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

PHILIP E. DEVINE is Professor of Philosophy at Providence College in Rhode Island.