Social Science Quotes

• Social science means inventing a certain brand of human we can understand.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Mean, Social, Certain

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.1801, Random House

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• Science is morally neutral, but social science shows us that some moral codes are better than others.

  Mario Bunge

  Moral, Social, Shows

  Source: deutsche-denker.de

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• Man, the molecule of society, is the subject of social science.

  Henry Charles Carey

  Men, Molecules, Social

  Henry Charles Carey (1872). “Manual of Social Science: Being a Condensation of the "Principles of Social Science" of H.C. Carey, LL.D.”, p.37

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• It’s not rocket science. It’s social science – the science of understanding people’s needs and their unique relationship with art, literature, history, music, work, philosophy, community, technology and psychology. The act of design is structuring and creating that balance.

  Clement Mok

  Art, Philosophy, Unique

  "Everything Reverberates: Thoughts on Design". Book edited by American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1998.

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• There is only one social science and we are its practitioners

  George Stigler

  Social

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• The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don't.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Witty, Humorous, Science

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• The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Power, Energy

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.4, Psychology Press

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• The social sciences offer equal promise for improving human welfare; our lives can be greatly improved through a deeper understanding of individual and collective behavior. But to realize this promise, the social sciences, like the natural sciences, need to match their institutional structures to today's intellectual challenges.

  Nicholas A. Christakis

  Understanding, Challenges, Intellectual

  "Let’s Shake Up the Social Sciences". www.nytimes.com. July 19, 2013.

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• I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

  Irvine Welsh

  Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

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• History is the shank of the social sciences.

  C. Wright Mills

  History, Social, Shank

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• Social science affirms that a woman's place in society marks the level of civilization.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Women, Civilization, Levels

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (2017). “Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences 1815-1897: The Truly Intriguing and Empowering Life Story of the World Famous American Suffragist, Social Activist and Abolitionist”, p.235, e-artnow

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• As the world of science has grown in size and in power, its deepest problems have changed from the epistemological to the social.

  Jerome Ravetz

  Change, Science, World

  "The Merger of Knowledge With Power". Book by Jerome R. Ravetz, 1990.

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• The social sciences were for all those who had not yet decided what to do with their lives, and for all those whose premature frustrations led them into the sterile alleys of confrontation.

  Peter Ustinov

  Frustration, Back Alleys, Social

  Nicholas Fraser, Kate Caffrey, Peter Ustinov, Carl Sagan, Eric Sevareid (1978). “Aristotle Onassis”

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• Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing more than medicine on a grand scale.

  Rudolf Virchow

  Medicine, Social, Scales

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• The findings in contemporary social sciences are helping us understand that we can find other ways to educate people and act against injustice and corruption in our society.

  Tariq Ramadan

  People, Way, Our Society

  Source: dinmerican.wordpress.com

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• The discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences.

  Thomas Piketty

  Passion, Discipline, Historical

  "Capital in the Twenty-First Century". Book by Thomas Piketty, March 10, 2014.

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• History is preoccupied with fundamental processes of change. If you are allergic to these processes, you abandon history and take cover in the social sciences. Today anthropology, sociology, etc, flourish. History is sick. But then our society too is sick

  Edward Hallett Carr

  Sick, Process Of Change, Our Society

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• There is no such thing as economics, only social science applied to economic problems.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Problem, Economics, Social

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• The social sciences are usually concerned with groups of persons rather than individual persons. The behavior of individuals, being free, is unpredictable.

  Carroll Quigley

  Being Free, Groups, Behavior

  Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• There is a noticeable general difference between the sciences and mathematics on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. It's a first approximation, but one that is real. In the former, the factors of integrity tend to dominate more over the factors of ideology. It's not that scientists are more honest people. It's just that nature is a harsh taskmaster. You can lie or distort the story of the French Revolution as long as you like, and nothing will happen. Propose a false theory in chemistry, and it'll be refuted tomorrow.

  Noam Chomsky

  Integrity, Real, Lying

  "Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent". Book by Robert F. Barsky, 1997.

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• At different times I taught humanities, social sciences and pre-vocational education.

  Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley

  Humanity, Different, Vocational Education

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• The social sciences, like much of biology but unlike most fields of the physical sciences, have to deal with structures of essential complexity, i.e. with structures whose characteristic properties can be exhibited only by models made up of relatively large numbers of variables.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Numbers, Essentials, Variables

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• If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and vocal energy of its supporters, then this must be even more so in the social sciences: truth lies in power.

  Imre Lakatos

  Lying, Numbers, Judging

  "Peirce's Theory of Inquiry and Beyond" by Thora Margareta Bertilsson, (p. 41), 2009.

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• The basic postulate from which I start is that the goal of the social sciences is the liberation of man.

  Jon Elster

  Men, Goal, Social

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• [Social] science fiction is that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance on human beings.

  Isaac Asimov

  Impact, Fiction, Literature

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