I'm 2/3rds of the way through Phlebas and thoroughly enjoying it. It's a fascinating counterpoint to traditional space opera narratives

IDW scabbing is still scabbing

I worship at the church of a cardigan-based morality

There are important differences between the methods and ends of physicists, literary scholars, psychologists, sociologists, historians, geologists, philosophers, biologists, linguists, etc. but our students deserve access to a robust education across all of those fields

Those are just some minor quibbles. Overall, the project of knowledge would not be well-served by further fragmenting the intellectual disciplines.

He also concedes that students at his science universities might actually need coursework in literature, history, or philosophy. His solution: they'll just "hire qualified instructors" instead of "the world’s expert on Shakespeare or Poe," code for an adjunctified second-tier of humanities faculty.

He tries to claim that lab directors focus on "a search for funding, not truth or politics," as though that's somehow apolitical. Successful funding applications require political awareness, rhetorical knowhow, and cultural discernment—habits of mind that we get to foreground in humanities courses!