Social Science Quotes - Page 3

• In the humanities and social sciences, and in fields like journalism and economics and so on, people have to be trained to be managers, and controllers, and to accept things, and not to question too much.

  Noam Chomsky

  People, Humanity, Too Much

  "Understanding Power". Book by Noam Chomsky, 2002.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Investing is not a natural science but rather a social science. So, it's never purely empirical; what you are trying to do is everything you possibly can to enhance your probabilities of being right more often than being wrong.

  William Browne

  Trying, Investing, Natural

  4 Copy quote

• A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency - issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights - the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.

  Gregory S. Paul

  Religious, Atheist, Children

  "Why do Americans still dislike atheists?". www.washingtonpost.com. April 29, 2011.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not that I wish by any means to deny, that the mental life of individuals and peoples is also in conformity with law, as is the object of philosophical, philological, historical, moral, and social sciences to establish.

  Hermann von Helmholtz

  Philosophical, Mean, Law

  Hermann von Helmholtz, David Cahan (1995). “Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays”, p.96, University of Chicago Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have been gradually coming under the conviction, disturbing for a professional theorist, that there is no such thing as economics - there is only social science applied to economic problems.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Problem, Economics, Conviction

  "A Reconstruction of Economics". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. VII, 1950.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• [Critical social science attempts] to determine when theoretical statements grasp invariant regularities of social action as such and when they express ideologically frozen relations of dependence that can in principle be transformed.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Principles, Frozen, Action

  "Knowledge and Human Interests". Book by Jürgen Habermas, 1971.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The great shift... is the movement away from the value-laden languages of... the "humanities," and toward the ostensibly value-neutral languages of the "sciences." This attempt to escape from, or to deny, valuation is... especially important in psychology... and the so-called social sciences. Indeed, one could go so far as to say that the specialized languages of these disciplines serve virtually no other purpose than to conceal valuation behind an ostensibly scientific and therefore nonvaluational semantic screen.

  Thomas Szasz

  Discipline, Psychology, Humanity

  "Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry". Book by Thomas Szasz and Karl Kraus (p. 44), March 1, 1990.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mathematical economics is old enough to be respectable, but not all economists respect it. It has powerful supporters and impressive testimonials, yet many capable economists deny that mathematics, except as a shorthand or expository device, can be applied to economic reasoning. There have even been rumors that mathematics is used in economics (and in other social sciences) either for the deliberate purpose of mystification or to confer dignity upon common places as French was once used in diplomatic communications.

  James R Newman

  Respect, Powerful, Communication

  "The World of Mathematics".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Early ecologists soon realised that, since humans are organisms, ecology should include the study of the relationship between humans and the rest of the biosphere. ... We don't often tend to think about the social sciences (history, economics and politics) as subcategories of ecology. But since people are organisms, it is apparent that we must first understand the principles of ecology if we are to make sense of the events in the human world.

  Richard Heinberg

  Thinking, People, Environmental

  4 Copy quote

• A … difference between most system-building in the social sciences and systems of thought and classification of the natural sciences is to be seen in their evolution. In the natural sciences both theories and descriptive systems grow by adaptation to the increasing knowledge and experience of the scientists. In the social sciences, systems often issue fully formed from the mind of one man. Then they may be much discussed if they attract attention, but progressive adaptive modification as a result of the concerted efforts of great numbers of men is rare.

  Lawrence Joseph Henderson

  Knowledge, Men, Differences

  11 Copy quote

• George Stigler Nobel laureate and a leader of Chicago School was asked why there were no Nobel Prizes awarded in the other social sciences, sociology, psychology, history, etc. "Don't worry", Stigler said, "they have already have a Nobel Prize in ...Literature"

  Robert Kuttner

  School, Science, Worry

  9 Copy quote

• The Spirit of Cities presents a new approach to the study of cities in which the focus is placed on a city's defining ethos or values. The style of the book is attractively conversational and even autobiographical, and far from current social science positivism. For a lover of cities--and perhaps even for one who is not--The Spirit of Cities is consistently good reading.

  Nathan Glazer

  Book, Reading, Ethos

  7 Copy quote

• Before I became a film major, I was very heavily into social science, I had done a lot of sociology, anthropology, and I was playing in what I call social psychology, which is sort of an offshoot of anthropology/sociology - looking at a culture as a living organism, why it does what it does.

  George Lucas

  Psychology, Doe, Culture

  10 Copy quote

• I wanted to be a car mechanic and I wanted to race cars and the idea of trying to make something out of my life wasn't really a priority. But the accident allowed me to apply myself at school. I got great grades. Eventually I got very excited about anthropology and about social sciences and psychology, and I was able to push my photography even further and eventually discovered film and film schools.

  George Lucas

  Photography, School, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• Many of our students want to do what they have done and that has made them successful thus far in their lives: play by the rules, and do what is expected. But as much social science research and writing by Malcolm Gladwell, among others, make clear, the rules are mostly created by those already in power so obtaining power often entails standing out and breaking rules and social conventions.

  Jeffrey Pfeffer

  Writing, Successful, Play

  Source: bobmorris.biz

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Leaders are not modest, and more importantly, the extensive social science research on narcissism, self-promotion, and similar constructs shows that these qualities and behaviors are useful for getting hired, achieving promotions, keeping one's job, and obtaining a higher salary.

  Jeffrey Pfeffer

  Jobs, Self, Leader

  Source: bobmorris.biz

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I suppose the situation varies from field to field. If you're a mathematician, your proficiency in English may not be such a problem. If you're in the humanities or social sciences, there is no doubt that it is a handicap for you.

  Henry Rosovsky

  Humanity, Doubt, May

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you just go get one of these little fine arts degrees or writing program degrees, it never forces you to confront your responsibility as narrator, whereas any of the social sciences make you at look the interaction between the storyteller and story.

  Dorothy Allison

  Art, Writing, Responsibility

  "A Conversation with Dorothy Allison". Interview with Renée Olander, www.awpwriter.org. October 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Race is an invention, not a noticeable genetic presence, and cultural traits are brute concoctions of the social sciences.

  Gerald Vizenor

  Race, Justice, Diversity

  9 Copy quote

• Social Science … led us to the fallacy that, since all men have their being in culture and as a result of culture, they owe a debt to that culture which even a lifetime of altruism could not repay.

  David Riesman

  Men, Culture, Debt

  David Riesman (1966). “Individualism Reconsidered, and Other Essays”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The ability to take another perspective has become one of the keys to both sales and non-sales selling. And the social science research on perspective-taking yields some important lessons for all of us.

  Daniel H. Pink

  Leadership, Keys, Yield

  4 Copy quote

• The Pseudo-liberals monopolize the teaching jobs at many universities. Only men who agree with them are appointed as teachers and instructors of the social sciences, and only textbooks supporting their ideas are used.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Teacher, Jobs, Teaching

  Ludwig Von Mises (2008). “Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wasn't looking to be an Indian brass band, but to be a band that reflected my complete identity as an American. The America I was born and raised in intersected with people of all ethnicities and beliefs and that, coupled with my parents' instilling of good values, made me the individual I am now. Within Red Baraat, there are varied musical backgrounds and personalities and that lends itself to many great thoughts and ideas; it's what makes social science, or more precisely, social interaction so interesting to me.

  Sunny Jain

  People, Interesting, Personality

  "With Red Baraat, Always a Dhol Moment". Interview With Emily Loftis, www.motherjones.com. January 10, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If any student of social science comes to appreciate the case of the Forgotten Man, he will become an unflinching advocate of strict scientific thinking in sociology, and a hard-hearted skeptic as regards any scheme of social amelioration. He will always want to know, Who and where is the Forgotten Man in this case, who will have to pay for it all?

  William Graham Sumner

  Men, Thinking, Appreciate

  William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.129, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• In Our Underachieving Colleges, [Derek] Bok acts as both diagnostician and healer, wielding social-science statistics and professional studies to trace the etiology of today's illnesses and to recommend palliative treatments for what he has discovered.

  Donald Kagan

  College, Statistics, Today

  4 Copy quote