"The social sciences are in a special difficulty because they cover the same field of human behavior as literature. As science, they must claim to improve upon the prejudice and superstition of common sense, and are therefore compelled to restate the language of common sense, full of implication and innuendo, in irreproachable, blameless, scientific prose innocent of bias or any other subtlety."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesPolitical scientists from the United StatesConservatives from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harvey_Mansfield
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Harvey Mansfield
15 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Harvey Mansfield →
Related Quotes
"Literature ... seeks to entertain — and why is this? ... The reason, fundamentally, is that literature knows somethin…"
"Today political science is often said to be ‘descriptive’ or ‘empirical,’ concerned with facts; political philosophy …"
"The self is a simplification of the notion of soul, created to serve the purposes of the modern sciences of psycholog…"
"Science wants the fruits of science, and it does not tolerate much doubt about the goodness of those fruits. ... Scie…"
"The way out from complication and doubt is to reduce the good to pleasure, something close to the body, or to utility…"
"Identity is as foreign to science as the good, and just as the good is reduced to something palpable, one’s own is ra…"
"Self-interest, when simple, is universal; I would do the same as you. I would be propelled toward an obvious good, or…"
"People want to stand for something, which means opposing those who stand for something else. In the course of opposin…"
"The notion of thumos tells us further that politics is about protection, not primarily about gain. The reason you ass…"
"The simplified notion of self-interest used by our political and social science cannot tolerate the tension between o…"