George Steiner is regarded as a polymath and often credited with recasting the role of the critic by exploring art and thought unbounded by national frontiers or academic disciplines. He advocates generalisation over specialisation, and insists that the notion of being literate must encompass knowledge of both arts and sciences. Steiner, who is Jewish, believes that nationalism is too inherently violent to satisfy the moral prerogative of Judaism, saying "that because of what we are, there are things we can't do."[6]