Alberto Mingardi's "Is Liberal Civilization a Somewhere?"

In Econlib.org Alberto Mingardi writes a useful critique of Daniel B. Klein's "10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Call Leftists Liberal,"  which I also just blogged.  Mingardi makes a good point:  The claim that liberalism is the heart of Western Civilization overstates the case.

Western civilization was born in two ancient cities: Athens and Jerusalem. One bestowed reason; the other bestowed morality.  Rome transmitted both traditions through its longstanding admiration for Greek culture, which likely began with its close links to the Etruscans, and through its adoption of Christianity following Constantine's conversion.

In turn, the Germanic tribes that invaded and assumed control of Rome adopted Christianity, so by 1100 almost all of Europe was either converted to Christianity or conquered by Islam. Hence, there are a number of sources of European culture, including the values and cultures of the barbarian tribes, which may have contributed to belief in natural law, and Islam, which transmitted Aristotle, who had been lost, back to Europe.  Thomistic scholasticism, the fusing of Aristotelian and Christian thought in the 12th and 13th centuries, would not have been possible without the recovery of Aristotle. 

Hence, the sources of Western civilization are diverse, and its manifestations are even more diverse.  Mingardi is right: the Reign of Terror, the Holocaust, and Noam Chomsky's denial of the Cambodian holocaust are as much parts of Western civilization as are the Wealth of Nations and the Declaration of Independence.

However, Klein makes a slightly different point.  He says that classical liberalism is the soul of Western civilization.  That is, while there are many elements of Western civilization, the tradition that is best, that is most rational, and that has helped humanity more than any other is classical liberalism.

Saying that liberalism is who we are is like saying that Aristotle was what Greek philosophy was or that the Declaration of Independence rather than his ownership of slaves was who Jefferson was.