Best Sentence I've Read Today (and perhaps in a long while)

Commenting on the excessive preoccupation of modern social scientists with formalism and positivism, this prominient sociologists argues that "they have found out nothing of significance about any aspect of social life, since in science as in love a concentration on technique is quite likely to lead to impotence."

Peter L. Berger, Invitation to Sociology (Doubleday, 1963, p. 13).

Comments

[Wladimir Kraus]

A great quote, indeed!

[RickC]

It is a great insight. I would say the same of the modern art world.

[Brian Pitt]

Excellent insight!

This too speaks to the continuing relevance of Berger's (1963) Invitation to Sociology!

[Richard Ebeling]

Peter Berger is one of the most insightful sociologists of the second half of the 20th century.

This should not be too surprising, since he was greatly influenced by Max Weber and Alfred Schutz, two of the leading sociologists closest to the Austrians in the last century.

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann's "The Construction of Social Reality" is a value contribution to social understanding from a Weberian/Schutzian perspective, and should be better known by Austrians. It is insightful and well-written.

Richard Ebeling

[Emily James]

Excellent quote, although I have to admit, that I read it 3 times until I got it.

[Morgan Ashcom]

Rick C, I completely agree. Jorg Colberg is a photography critic who has written a great blog post on this subject. It is called "When the Medium Becomes the Message". Just replace the word Medium with Technique.

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2008/07/when_the_medium_becomes_the_message.html