If the natural sciences can be successfully united with the social sciences and the humanities, the liberal arts in higher education will be revitalized. The future of the liberal arts lies in addressing the fundamental questions of human existence head on, without embarrassment or fear, taking them from the top down in easily understandable language, and progressively rearranging them into domains of inquiry that unite the best of science and the humanities at each level of organization in turn.

(E.O. Wilson, Consilience)