The history of Western art, literature, and science in the post-ancient world possesses more than enough justification for anyone to call it "high" culture. If

The history of Western art, literature, and science in the post-ancient world possesses more than enough justification for anyone to call it "high" culture. If you can't make value judgments about Mozart, Michelangelo, or Shakespeare, that's simply a tragedy. I strongly recommend Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life." To take a direct shot at relativism: I think it's quite possible to justify the West over the last 500 years as the most productive era for art and science in all of human history up until now.