 |
 |
C.S. Lewis's essay on 'The Anthropological Approach' would still seem to me to offer salutary advice on the limitations of anthropology as an aid to humane studies. And if Frye was right in calling the social sciences simply the applied humanities, aren't we in danger of getting the cart before the horse? Newman in _The Idea of a University_ would have argued, I think, that 'butterfly collecting' is, at worst, an innocent occupation worthy of a rational being; can more be said for the most rigorously theoretical of academic pursuits? Besides, anyone who _has_ collected butterflies--or stamps, or anything--in any but the most desultory way knows that there's more to it than mere accumulation. Arrangement and description are inevitable, and by definition both presuppose some kind of analysis and framework, though the very act of acquisition nearly always works to refine the one and modify the other. The human mind is by nature not content merely to accumulate data without trying to make sense of them. How it does that will depend to some extent on the individual's training, to some extent on his [NB: used generically, without apology] bent. W. G. COOKE