"One of the most important functions of the "classics" in sociology is to root the sociologist in history and to enable him to live among and to take the role of truly great men. The classics implant standards of great, though often unfulfillable, achievement: they make it difficult for a man to be impressed or intimidated by those around him. An historical approach to theory puts one in the company of greatness, and it inevitably raises the standard by which one measures accomplishment. History thus insulates us from the vulgarities, no less than the gratifications, of the present."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
The Coming Crisis in Sociology (1970), p. 16
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alvin_Ward_Gouldner
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alvin Ward Gouldner
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alvin Ward Gouldner →
Related Quotes
"The value-free doctrine is useful both to those who want to escape from the world and those who want to escape into i…"
"Insofar as our culture conventionally construes technical, scientific, and professional roles as those that obligate …"
"The culture of critical discourse (CCD) is an historically evolved set of rules, a grammar of discourse, which (1) is…"
"When one appeals solely to the truth of a discourse to authorize it intellectually and socially, one represses reflec…"
"On the other hand, ... a pragmatic turn ... expands the number of parties who may participate more or less as equals …"
"Where a discourse is redeemed ultimately by metatheoretical appeals, experts step forward as the authorities. This si…"
"By the early 1980s the more perceptive sectors of the neo-liberal ruling classes realised that their policies were po…"
"Most dictatorships have been anti-statist and pro-free market, today and in the past and probably in the future."
"The inefficiency of the state is directly related to its subordination to private interests."
"Anti-imperialist movements are no longer middle class dominated nationalist movements, they are class-based because i…"