Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Marvin Harris

Quote by Marvin Harris

“Every theory presented as a scientific concept is just that; it's a theory that tries to explain more about the world than previous theories have done. It is open to being challenged and to being proven incorrect.”

Quote by Marvin Harris

Create image

Author

Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris

Marvin Harris, born on August 18, 1927, and died on October 25, 2001, was a renowned American anthropologist. His research focused on cultural anthropology, the origins of agriculture, and human ecology, which had a profound impact on the development of modern anthropology. more

You May Also Like

“Behind it was that vast suspension bridge which always troubles me because it reminds me that in this mechanized age I am as little able to understand my environment as any primitive woman who thinks that a waterfall is inhabited by a spirit, and indeed less so, for her opinion might from a poetical point of view be correct.”

ThinkingLittlesMightAgeAbleSpiritViewsBehindsOpinionEnvironmentTroublePoint Of ViewBridgesPrimitiveWaterfallsSuspension
Book:Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia
Create image

“A monumental decision such as starting a family requires persuasive dissertations, licences, spreadsheets and field research. That's what I assumed until one night when we were lying in bed and, if I recall correctly, I asked Tracy if we were ready to have a family now, and she said sure. That was it.”

IfsSaidLyingNightDecisionFieldsReadyBedResearchStartingRecallsOne NightPersuasiveTracyDissertationStarting A Family
Book:C'mon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark
Create image

“He needs to be corrected, if you don't mind me saying so. He needs a good talking-to, and perhaps a bit more. My own girls, sir, didn't care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of my matches and tried to burn it down. I corrected them. I corrected them most harshly. And when my wife tried to stop me from doing my duty, I corrected her.”

IfsNeedsMindFirstsCareGirlBitsMy OwnTalkingWifeDutyMy WifePacks
Book:THE SHINING
Create image

“What we take ourselves to be doing when we think about what is the case or how we should act is something that cannot be reconciled with a reductive naturalism, for reasons distinct from those that entail the irreducibility of consciousness. It is not merely the subjectivity of thought but its capacity to transcend subjectivity and to discover what is objectively the case that presents a problem....Thought and reasoning are correct or incorrect in virtue of something independent of the thinker's beliefs, and even independent of the community of thinkers to which he belongs. (p. 71)”

ThinkingShouldReasonProblemBeliefCommunityConsciousnessCasesVirtueCapacityIndependentReasoningThinkerSubjectivityNaturalism
Book:Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
Create image

“Jephthah called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, 'Let me cross over,' the men of Gilead asked him, 'Are you an Ephraimite?' If he replied, 'No,' they said, 'All right, say Shibboleth.' If he said, 'Sibboleth,' because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Fourty-thousand were killed at the time.”

IfsMenSaidTogetherHe ManThousandCrossesLet MeSurvivorThey SaidCapturedJordan
Author:Edwidge Danticat
Create image