Abstract

Abstract More than forty-five years after the publication of C.P. Snow's essay on The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, the "gulf of understanding" he described between scholars in the sciences and humanities appears to have grown ever larger, with disciplinary knowledge becoming more specialized and incomprehensible to those outside of the field. Suggestions for bridging the gap have often been perceived as attempts by one side to colonize another's intellectual territory, further increasing the level of distrust and misunderstanding between scholars of the various disciplines. Yet from a learner's point of view, exposure to a variety of discipline-based viewpoints and methodologies can still have great value within a broadly based liberal arts education, provided that there is a degree of coherence in their presentation. Centered on the Buddhist parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant, the author of this paper offers an example of a learning-centered approach to highlighting areas of common intellectual ground, while preserving the strengths found in distinct areas of disciplinary expertise.