>Someday, love of formalism will be regarded as a disaster in the same way
>that behavourism is now. Social science is not something to be studied in
>labs. The best insights are out there on the streets, where nice white lab
>coats can get dirty.
Street-wise, world-foolish, a friend, Mo Benjamin once said to me. Or 'ignorance never helped anyone' as Marx said to Weitling.
Sympathetic as I am to Scott's despair at linguistics and econometrics, it is an error to elevate practice over theory. Marx did good social science in the British library. Formalism might be a trap, but abstract thinking is the very essence of science. Mathematical measurement is not always something to be ignored. It would be childish not to pay attention to such things as wage differentials or profit rates.
-- James Heartfield Sustaining Architecture in the Anti-Machine Age is available at GBP19.99, plus GBP3.26 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'. www.audacity.org