"It's rather more of an effort towardsinclusion of what was not in the curriculum ageneration ago--more on foreign cultures, more onwomen, and more on non-whites," Light adds. "Iview it as a wonderful constructive development."

Professor of Government Seyla Benhabibincorporates feminist perspectives on traditionaltexts into her core course, Moral Reasoning 50,"The Public and the Private." She does not believethat students lose anything from studyingphilosophers such as Aristotle, Hobbles and Lockefrom a contemporary perspective.

"I would like to think that I'm both able togive them the standard interpretation and thestandard textual analysis and that I'm also ableto call attention to different issues, "Benhabibsays. "I have often called it the canon with atwist."'

Professors admit, however, that with inclusioncomes the question of limits. Placing new,contemporary authors on a course syllabus oftenmeans skimping on older ones, or cutting them outentirely. But they say the tradeoffs are worth it.

"This [inclusion] may mean that the timeallotted to studying the formerly canonicalauthors may be reduced, but one looks at them froma different perspective," says Assistant Professorof German Beatrice Hanssen, who is also a memberof the women's studies committee.

And others go further to say that the fullvalue of a liberal arts education can be realizedonly with a combined knowledge of the Westerncanon and more contemporary thought.

"The horizons of educated people haveincreasingly expanded during the twentieth centuryso that it has become harder and harder to equatethe European tradition with a knowledgeableperson," says Dean for Undergraduate EducationLawrence Buell.

Method vs. Content

Given the widespread disagreement over theproper content of a liberal arts education, manyprofessors say students should learn techniquesrather than ingesting one particular body ofknowledge.

"The ideal college education is one where astudent learns things he is not going to use inafter life, by methods that he is going touse," says Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles,quoting former Harvard President A. LawrenceLowell, Class of 1877.

Analysis, Appiah agrees, is often moreimportant than facts.

"That's the trick to get people prepared notfor just facts, and perhaps the distinctionbetween what you do and don't know," you do anddon't know," Appiah says.

And Keohane believes the University's job is toput students "in the position to make decision forthemselves."

To illustrate his point, Keohane tells anapocryphal tale about Robert Maynard Hutchins,once chancellor of the University of Chicago anddean of the Yale law school. Reputedly, Hutchinsonce entertained former president William HowardTaft.

Thinking of Yale as left-wing, Taft said toHutchins, "At Yale, I understand that you teachyou students that all justices are fools."