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Theory Quotes

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Theory Quotes

“The Theatre of the Absurd has renounced arguing about the absurdity of the human condition; it merely presents it in being - that is, in terms of concrete stage images. This is the difference between the approach of the philosopher and that of the poet; the difference, to take an example from another sphere, between the idea of God in the works of Thomas Aquinas or Spinoza and the intuition of God in those of St. John of the Cross or Meister Eckhart - the difference between theory and experience.”

Source: The Theatre of the Absurd

“Economy and ideology. The claim (presented as an essential postulate of historical materialism) that every fluctuation of politics and ideology can be presented and expounded as an immediate expression of the structure, must be contested in theory as primitive infantilism, and combated in practice with the authentic testimony of Marx, the author of concrete political and historical works.”

Political Practice Economy Expression Theory Essentials Claims Structure Historical Ideology Materialism Concrete Primitive Testimony Fluctuation

Author:Antonio Gramsci

“We continually forget that the sphere of morals is the sphere of action, that speculation in regard to morality is but observation and must remain in the sphere of intellectual comment, that a situation does not really become moral until we are confronted with the question of what shall be done in a concrete case, and are obliged to act upon our theory.”

Doe Done Action Forget Situation Moral Cases Theory Morality Intellectual Regard Observation Comment Spheres Concrete Speculation Obliged

Book:Democracy and Social Ethics

Source: Democracy and Social Ethics

“By abstaining from all definite content, whether as formal logic and theory of science or as the legend of Being beyond all beings, philosophy declared its bankruptcy regarding concrete social goals.”

Philosophy Social Goal Theory Logic Legends Concrete Formal Definite Bankruptcy Abstaining

Book:Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords

Source: Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords

“Dialectical thought understands the critical tension between "is" and "ought" first as an ontological condition, pertaining to the structure of Being itself. However, the recognition of this state of Being its theory intends from the beginning a concrete practice. Seen in the light of a truth which appears in them falsified or denied, the given facts themselves appear false and negative.”

Firsts States Facts Light Given Practice Conditions Theory Ought Negative Structure Critical Recognition Tension Denied Concrete

Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society

Source: One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society

“I can not evolve any concrete theory about painting.”

I Can Painting Theory Evolve Concrete Can Not

Author:William Baziotes

“Finding Mecca in America weaves social theory and concrete ethnography into a significant contribution on Muslims in the United States, illuminating broader questions about the integration of minority and immigrant groups along the way. This is an important work and a joy to read.”

“You can keep counting forever. The answer is infinity. But, quite frankly, I don't think I ever liked it. I always found something repulsive about it. I prefer finite mathematics much more than infinite mathematics. I think that it is much more natural, much more appealing and the theory is much more beautiful. It is very concrete. It is something that you can touch and something you can feel and something to relate to. Infinity mathematics, to me, is something that is meaningless, because it is abstract nonsense.”

Thinking Feels Beautiful Science Found Natural Answers Forever Theory Infinite Mathematics Relate Abstract Nonsense Infinity Meaningless Concrete Finite Counting

Author:Doron Zeilberger

“Identity is marketed in national capitalism as a property. It is something you can purchase, or purchase a relation to. Or it is something you already own that you can express: my masculinity, my queerness . But identity need not be simply a caption for an image of an unchangeable concrete self. It is also a theory of the future, of history.”

Needs Self Identity Theory Capitalism Relation Property Concrete Masculinity Unchangeable Caption

Author:Lauren Berlant

“General Systems Theory is a name which has come into use to describe a level of theoretical model-building which lies somewhere between the highly generalized constructions of pure mathematics and the specific theories of the specialized disciplines. Mathematics attempts to organize highly general relationships into a coherent system, a system however which does not have any necessary connections with the "real" world around us. It studies all thinkable relationships abstracted from any concrete situation or body of empirical knowledge.”

“Though determinants and matrices received a great deal of attention in the nineteenth century and thousands of papers were written on these subjects, they do not constitute great innovations in mathematics.... Neither determinants nor matrices have influenced deeply the course of mathematics despite their utility as compact expressions and despite the suggestiveness of matrices as concrete groups for the discernment of general theorems of group theory.”

Source: Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times