“If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.” IfsAttentionPracticeTheorySpendingPracticalsTheoreticalPractical Things Author:Donald Knuth
“What was needed was a literary theory which, while preserving the formalist bent of New Criticism, its dogged attention to literature as aesthetic object rather than social practice, would make something a good deal more systematic and 'scientific' out of all this. The answer arrived in 1957, in the shape of the Canadian Northrop Fryes mighty 'totalization' of all literary genres, Anatomy of Criticism .” LiteratureSocialAnswersDealsAttentionPracticeObjectsTheoryNeededShapesCriticismGenreAestheticBentSystematicAnatomyLiterary TheoryLiterary Genre Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction
“We live in a supermarket of ideas, faiths, practices, theories, ideologies, and much else besides. Never in human history have there been so many movements and ideas struggling to attract our attention. Added to this, the Western world is swamped by material goods and the Western mind is dominated by the goal of material success. In all this confusion, Zen stands out as a voice of sanity. It represents a different way of seeing the world, one based upon the rediscovery of who we really are and have always been, through revealing to us our true nature.” WorldWayMindHumansIdeasDifferentGoalVoiceAttentionPracticeStruggleSeeingMovementMaterialsTheoryWesternConfusionIdeologyDifferent WaysGoodsSanityStanding OutRevealingHuman HistoryTrue NatureSupermarketsWestern WorldSeeing The WorldRediscovery Author:David Fontana
“Some think to avoid the influence of metaphysical errors, by paying no attention to metaphysics; but experience shows that these men beyond all others are held in an iron vice of metaphysical theory, because by theories that they have never called in question.” ThinkingMenShowsAttentionInfluenceTheoryErrorsVicesIronMetaphysicsMetaphysical Book:His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce Source: His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce
“A … difference between most system-building in the social sciences and systems of thought and classification of the natural sciences is to be seen in their evolution. In the natural sciences both theories and descriptive systems grow by adaptation to the increasing knowledge and experience of the scientists. In the social sciences, systems often issue fully formed from the mind of one man. Then they may be much discussed if they attract attention, but progressive adaptive modification as a result of the concerted efforts of great numbers of men is rare.” IfsMenMindMaySocialGrowsNaturalDifferencesResultsNumbersEffortAttentionKnowledgeIssuesBuildingTheoryEvolutionScientistOne ManProgressiveAdaptationSocial ScienceNatural ScienceClassificationModificationKnowledge And ExperienceAdaptiveIncreasing Knowledge Author:Lawrence Joseph Henderson
“The subject for which I am asking your attention deals with the foundations of mathematics. To understand the development of the opposing theories existing in this field one must first gain a clear understnding of the concept "science"; for it is as a part of science that mathematics originally took its place in human thought.” FirstsHumansDealsAttentionClearSubjectsFieldsTheoryDevelopmentConceptsGainsAskingMathematicsFoundationOpposingHuman Thought Author:L. E. J. Brouwer
“In view of the importance of philanthropy in our society, it is surprising that so little attention has been given to it by economic or social theorists. In economic theory, especially, the subject is almost completely ignored. This is not, I think, because economists regard mankind as basically selfish or even because economic man is supposed to act only in his self-interest; it is rather because economics has essentially grown up around the phenomenon of exchange and its theoretical structure rests heavily on this process.” ThinkingMenLittlesHas BeensSelfGivenSocialProcessInterestViewsAttentionEconomicSubjectsMankindTheoryEconomicsImportanceRegardStructureSelfishOur SocietyPhenomenonSurprisingPhilanthropyIgnoredEconomistTheoreticalSelf InterestTheoristsEconomic Theory Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“Critical Race Theory offers a critique of how law and certain law reform strategies misunderstand the actual operation of life-shortening state violence, and how that has produced a set of reforms that fail to actually transform material conditions of white supremacy. These critiques redirect our attention to the conditions we aim to transform.” StatesLawCertainWhiteRaceAttentionViolenceFailingConditionsMaterialsTheoryOffersAimStrategyCriticalReformOperationsWhite SupremacyCritiqueSupremacy Author:Dean Spade
“In America, much foreign policy seems contrived to be an exercise in political theory with no attention to history whatsoever. Yet there's a great reverence for history - though it's history as thumb-sucking, security blanket-nibbling self-congratulation.” SelfSeemsAmericaPoliticalAttentionSecurityPolicyTheoryExerciseReverenceForeign PolicyCongratulationsThumbsBlanketPolitical TheoryNibbling Author:Simon Schama
“Berkshire's whole record has been achieved without paying one ounce of attention to the efficient market theory in its hard form. And not one ounce of attention to the descendants of that idea, which came out of academic economics and went into corporate finance and morphed into such obscenities as the capital asset pricing model, which we also paid no attention to. I think you'd have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe that you could easily outperform the market by seven-percentage points per annum just by investing in high volatility stocks.” ThinkingBelieveHas BeensIdeasHardWholeFormAttentionRecordsTheoryModelsEconomicsPaidSevenInvestingTeethFinanceCorporateFairyAssetsAcademicEfficientPercentagesDescendantsObscenityPricingVolatilityTooth FairyEfficient Markets Author:Charlie Munger