Heretics · Chapter
XI: Science and the Savages explained
Chesterton argues that the scientific study of folklore and primitive cultures is fundamentally flawed because it requires the scientist to suppress his own humanity, whereas understanding human nature requires being human.
What happens
Chesterton argues that the scientific study of folklore and primitive cultures is fundamentally flawed because it requires the scientist to suppress his own humanity, whereas understanding human nature requires being human. He contends that ceremonial and ritual are inherently irrational and cannot be explained by rationalist theories; instead, they arise from the same mysterious, instinctive impulses that drive modern customs. He criticizes anthropomorphism as a supernatural, not a natural, impulse, and dismisses the possibility of a genuine science of human affairs because human desires and emotions are incurably mystical and unreliable.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Modern Morality
Chesterton attacks the scientific mindset that reduces human customs and emotions to mere data, arguing that this approach is dehumanizing and misses the irrational, spiritual core of human life.
Role of Ritual and Frivolity
The chapter defends ceremonial and ritual as essentially irrational but deeply human, comparing savage customs to modern practices like placing flowers on graves.
Paganism vs. Christianity
Chesterton discusses anthropomorphism and the supernatural, suggesting that primitive peoples saw the divine as semi-human not because it was natural, but because it was mysterious and supernatural.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator presents a sustained critique of scientific anthropology, arguing that the scientific method is inapplicable to human affairs because it requires suppressing the very humanity needed to understand people.
- Robert Browning
Mentioned in a hypothetical example about future folklorists disbelieving the elopement of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, illustrating the absurdity of scientific skepticism toward well-attested human events.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Mentioned alongside Robert Browning in the same hypothetical example about future folklorists doubting their elopement.
Key passages
“A permanent disadvantage of the study of folklore and kindred subjects is that the man of science can hardly be in the nature of things very frequently a man of the world. He is a student of nature; he is scarcely ever a student of human nature.”
Scientists who study folklore are rarely worldly or experienced in human affairs; they study nature, not people.
Chesterton introduces his central critique: scientific detachment makes anthropologists poor judges of human behavior.
“The secret of why some savage tribe worships monkeys or the moon is not to be found even by travelling among those savages and taking down their answers in a notebook... The answer to the riddle is in England; it is in London; nay, it is in his own heart.”
To understand primitive customs, one need not travel abroad; the answer lies in understanding one's own culture and heart.
Chesterton argues that human nature is universal, so introspection and local observation are more revealing than fieldwork.
“The obvious truth is that the moment any matter has passed through the human mind it is finally and forever spoilt for all purposes of science. It has become a thing incurably mysterious and infinite; this mortal has put on immortality.”
Once something is processed by the human mind, it becomes too complex and mysterious for scientific analysis.
Chesterton asserts that human desires and emotions are inherently unscientific because they are irrational and infinite.