Social Theory Quotes

• The judgment that human life is worth living, or rather can and ought to be made worth living, ... underlies all intellectual effort; it is the a priori of social theory, and its rejection (which is perfectly logical) rejects theory itself.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Rejection, Effort, Intellectual

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.41, Routledge

  4 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.

  Robert K. Merton

  Inspirational, Faith, Science

  Robert K. Merton (1973). “The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations”, p.265, University of Chicago Press

  74 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Such abstraction which refuses to accept the given universe of facts as the final context of validation, such "transcending" analysis of the facts in the light of their arrested and denied possibilities, pertains to the very structure of social theory.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Light, Validation, Finals

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.41, Routledge

  4 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• If you look at a lot of traditional societies, they're all organized along what we might call anarchist guidelines, but it's not like the Zapatistas were reading European social theory.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Reading, Looks, Might

  Fuente: www.guernicamag.com

  8 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Mientras el poeta se entretiene, sigue buscando verdades eternas, la esencia del ser. A su manera, intenta resolver el enigma del tiempo y del cambio, encontrar una respuesta al sufrimiento, revelar el amor en el mismo abismo de la crueldad y la injusticia. Por extrañas que puedan parecer estas palabras, a menudo juego con la idea de que cuando todas las teorías sociales se derrumben y las guerras y revoluciones dejen a la humanidad sumida en la más absoluta penumbra, el poeta -al que Plato prohibió la entrada en su República- podría alzarse para salvarnos a todos.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Fashion, Plato, War

  Isaac Bashevis Singer Joseph C. Landis (1986). "Aspectos de I.B. Singer"

  5 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Finding Mecca in America weaves social theory and concrete ethnography into a significant contribution on Muslims in the United States, illuminating broader questions about the integration of minority and immigrant groups along the way. This is an important work and a joy to read.

  Eboo Patel

  America, Joy, Important

  11 Copiar cita

• The logic of all this seems to be that it is all right for young people in a democracy to learn about any civilization or social theory that is not dangerous, but that they should remain entirely ignorant of any civilization or social theory that might be dangerous on the ground that what you don't know can't hurt you ... a complete denial of the democratic principle that the general diffusion of knowledge and learning through the community is essential to the preservation of free government.

  Carl L. Becker

  Education, Hurt, Government

  Carl L. Becker (1960). “Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life”

  10 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Change the instruments and you will change the entire social theory that goes with them

  Bruno Latour

  Social, Theory, Instruments

  39 Copiar cita

• We supported the cooperative movement among farmers. The movement was still young and stubbornly opposed to the commercial distributors. I believed it to be one of the most helpful undertakings, for according to my social theories any organization run by citizens for their own welfare is preferable to the same action by the government.

  Herbert Hoover

  Running, Wisdom, Government

  4 Copiar cita

• Widely dispersed knowledge concerning the important role of basic cooperative processes among living beings may lead to the acceptance of cooperation as a guiding principle both in social theory and as a basis for human behavior. Such a development when it occurs will alter the course of human history.

  Guardián Clyde Allee

  Acceptance, Guiding Principles, Important

  "Cooperation among Animals with Human Implications". Book by Warder Clyde Allee, p. 213, 1951.

  6 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Desde los primeros tiempos, [la iglesia] se ha lanzado violentamente contra todo esfuerzo por liberar el cuerpo y la mente del hombre. Ha sido, en todo tiempo y lugar, la habitual e incorregible defensora de malos gobiernos, malas leyes, malas teorías sociales, malas instituciones. Fue, durante siglos, apologista de la esclavitud, como lo fue del derecho divino de los reyes.

  H. L. Mencken

  Reyes, Hombres, Ley

  14 Copiar cita

• The economic and social theories used by those who take part in the social struggle ought to be judged not by their objective value but primarily for their effectiveness in arousing emotions. The scientific refutation of them which can be made is useless, however correct it may be objectively.

  Vilfredo Pareto

  Struggle, Effectiveness, Useless

  Vilfredo Pareto (1971). "Manual de economía política", Augustus m Kelley Pubs

  26 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Universities are an example of organizations dominated wholly by intellectuals; yet, outside pure science, they have not been an optimal milieu for the unfolding of creative talents. In neither art, music, literature, technology and social theory, nor planning have the Universities figured as originators or as seedbeds of new talents and energies.

  Eric Hoffer

  Arte, Tecnología, Organización

  "Eric Hoffer y el arte del cuaderno", por Tom Bethell en Harper's Magazine, julio de 2005.

  4 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• The only debatable issue, it seems to me, is whether it is more ridiculous to turn to experts in social theory for general well-confirmed propositions, or to the specialists in the great religions and philosophical systems for insights into fundamental human values.

  Noam Chomsky

  Philosophical, Issues, Experts

  Noam Chomsky (2010). “The Chomsky Reader”, p.71, Pantheon

  4 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Determination, Believe, Eye

  164 Copiar cita

• I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory.

  Paul Farmer

  Impact, Catholic, Social

  8 Copiar cita

• With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the heart’s preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Heart, Keys, Mountain Ranges

  "Have We Forgotten God?" by John W. Whitehead, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

  20 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• In restating this basic Christian doctrine, Benedict argues that it is not only for Christians alone. Others may not share the Christian faith in God, but the Christian proclamation that hope comes from within the person- in the realm of faith and conscience - is for them too. It offers an important protection against stifling and occasionally brutal social systems built on false hopes that come from outside the person, founded on political idealogies, economic models and social theories.

  Raymond J. de Souza

  Christian, Hope, Economic Models

  4 Copiar cita

• Writers are greatly respected. The intelligent public is wonderfully patient with them, continues to read them, and endures disappointment after disappointment, waiting to hear from art what it does not hear from theology, philosophy, social theory, and what it cannot hear from pure science. Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.

  Saul Bellow

  Art, Disappointment, Philosophy

  Saul Bellow (2015). “There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction”, p.216, Penguin

  9 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome-not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.

  Thomas Huxley

  Art, Teaching, Rome

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.315, Cambridge University Press

  16 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente

• Like all social theories, internationalism must seek its basis in the economic and technical fields; here are to be found the most profound and the most decisive factors in the development of society.

  Christian Lous Lange

  Profound, Development, Fields

  24 Copiar cita

• Despite long-standing claims by elites that Blacks, women, Latinos, and other similarly derogated groups in the United States remain incapable of producing the type of interpretive, analytical thought that is labeled theory in the West, powerful knowledges of resistance that toppled former social structures of social inequality repudiate this view. Members of these groups do in fact theorize, and our critical social theory has been central to our political empowerment and search for justice.

  Patricia Hill Collins

  Powerful, Views, Long

  Patricia Hill Collins (1998). “Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice”, p.16, U of Minnesota Press

  53 Copiar cita

  Mostrar fuente