Actually the western canon contains a fair number of non western authors and thinkers. That is the good think about the western canon is that I don't think it was dictated by culture or ideology but on the outstanding thinkers who contributed something to understanding ourselves, life and brought new insights that made an impression.Ahh. The "vaunted" western canon of literature. A very 19th century view of western literature from the Anglo(and sometimes)-American elites and their educational institutions formed before the ethnics, Jews, Catholics, and poors were contaminated their educational spaces. The big whingers about the reduced teaching of that literature also bemoan (mostly out of view) that we got into their spaces. Of course this "western canon" needs to be revamped and expanded. Stuff was written after 1850 and outside England. Stylistically I find most of it unreadable.
For example the canon includes Russians like Tolstoy and Germans such as Kant and Nietzsche. Or muscians like Beethoven and Mozart hardly American country music or western pop. There are also Asians, South Americans, African authors. If the wworks impacted society and made an impression on our lives it made the canon.
I think the canon contains those great works which we all need to know which gives us the pivotal periods of thinking and how this changed and influenced society. Not just for the west but for everyone. Like Frauds great insights which changed psychology and led to psychological profiling. Or the many great ethical philosophers who have challenged our ideas about morality.
Some say in this case Peterson that the canon can be put in a hierarchal order of truth. Basically literature is about truth, trying to reveal a truth about self and the world. The more ideas about truth that are dependent on a given idea the more fundemental that idea and truth is. So the great authors like Shakesphere are in there because so many other texts rely on its literary revelations. Others like Milton funny enough and Dante woiuld be deep in the hiearchy.
So those great canon texts are there because they influences other texts in the hierarchy than all other texts with the bible at its base as this for the west was the first book literally at one point. In fact it was the church that helped get it printed for the public back then. Before it was a book it was on papyrus and other smaller texts.
So the bible is not just truth that all other texts have stemmed from but its the precondition for the manifestation of truth.
I guess its not just the story moral of the story. I mean with quotes like "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven" and "Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven" says it all.Ugh. It wasn't a good story the first time, why would I read an Englishman's rewrite?
These ideas still underpin our thinking and reveal insights into values about life. About how we can be lured by pride to make choices based on short term glory but will make us unhappy in the end. All that glitters is not gold ect. Be wise in your choices and ensure you look after whats important and not what others think is important.
These ideas and principles come out of canon literature and are important truths the west discovered which have helped us understand ourselves and life.
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