Anti-Climacus

Via Jacob Levy on twitter, an interesting link functionally attempting to disprove the hostility of the modern university to the Great Books. Ironically enough, it's large research-oriented universities that can support these programs, simply because so many courses and so many instructors are required. Anecdotally, I also had no difficulty finding courses along those lines in my college years (I took Dante and the Russian Novel, British history in the 20th century, etc etc), and my professors tended to be broad-minded about politics whether they made their beliefs explicit or not.

The best explanation I've come up with for the persistence of these complaints is historical: the professors who are at or near the peak of their influence all came up in the mid-80s, and got their first jobs in the late-80s or early-90s. That is to say, they perceived themselves to be (and many in fact were) in a vulnerable position in the Canon Wars, and don't quite see the shift that's occurred in the last 10 years. It's the revenge of the Organization Kid: the people I know and am friendly with are all concerned to help each other develop professionally, and go out of our way to be helpful even when someone else's work begins with assumptions we don't share. For the moment, at least, it appears as a kinder, gentler form of academia.