Theoretical Sociologists Quotes

“Max Weber was right in subscribing to the view that one need not be Caesar in order to understand Caesar. But there is a temptation for us theoretical sociologists to act sometimes as though it is not necessary even to study Caesar in order to understand him. Yet we know that the interplay of theory and research makes both for understanding of the specific case and expansion of the general rule.”
― Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure

“Theoreticians attempting to dissect human history by force fitting contrived definitions about “modernism” and “post-modernism” are toiling in vain, effectively emptying buckets into the river rapids of flowing time.”
― A.E. Samaan