To the Editor:

Jere P. Surber's amusing article attempts to explain why liberal-arts faculty members are more liberal politically than their colleagues in business schools and the natural and social sciences ("Well, Naturally We're Liberal," The Chronicle Review, February 12).

He believes that the reasons are obvious, part, indeed, of everyday existence, and can be attributed to the disparity between their levels of educational attainment and their low rewards, their understanding of large-scale historical processes and complex cultural dynamics, and their inherited appreciation of the role of values in human affairs and the skills needed to interpret the inevitable clashes between conflicting values. Liberal-arts faculty members are where they are as a result of practical deliberation, factual investigations, and rational and moral conviction.

But the historical record of humankind is not just or even predominantly about the struggles he describes. It is about beliefs and feelings of all kinds, artistic and cultural, intellectual, philosophical, political, religious, and social. It is about relations among human beings. It is about the creation of great civilizations and communities and their interaction, about exploration and the investigation of our world. It contains stories of conflict, of course, but also of cooperation in the creation of institutions and laws, the accountability of the rulers to the ruled, and the artistic and cultural achievements that have made advanced societies stable and valuable to their citizens.

Conservative thinkers have contributed just as much to the study of these processes as liberal or radical ones. Liberals are not the only people to recognize that values have a vital role to play in human experience. Nor are they alone in possessing the essential equipment to interpret the clashes among such values, as anyone who has ever canvassed for a political party or a cause will understand.

Liberal-arts faculty members are more likely to hold the political and social views they do because of their training and teaching practices and professional experiences. Explaining the world clearly involves passing on the skills of interpretative reading and encouraging both critical thinking and cogent writing. These are valuable in themselves. But the use of whiteboards and PowerPoint projections are not sufficient to make the case for "liberal" politics. What works in the classroom for teachers does not necessarily work beyond it.

Experience in the world and of the world makes a powerful case for conservatism, too. That is why the future belongs not to one political party or intellectual tendency or even to the possessors of liberal-arts skills but to the outcome of the historical processes beyond Professor Surber's horizons. The outcome is not preordained any more than the tendencies—political or social—of liberal-arts faculty members.

Christopher Thompson
Senior Research Fellow
Humanities Research Institute
University of Buckingham
Buckingham, England

Comments from Chronicle.com:

Professor Surber's piece is really fascinating. Now that he mentions it, of course it seems perfectly obvious: Unfair wage disparity causes humanities professors to support abortion, gay marriage, exploitation of human embryos for research, criminalization of offensive speech, decriminalization of marijuana, explicit sex instruction for grade-schoolers, suppression of guns and religion, and racial/gender discrimination against white males. Yes, that all makes perfect sense now. Thank heavens we have intelligent philosophers to explain these things to us.

mcparlan

Surber's honesty supports what conservative academics have been saying for years: Liberal professors know, by fiat, that they are morally and intellectually superior, and for that reason and none other conservatives can be shunned in the liberal arts. Outstanding! Way to contradict the assertion that liberals are open-minded. I hope Surber becomes the spokesperson for the liberal academy. Conservatives couldn't conjure a better spokesperson for their concerns.

zachgarber