60: "economists do not relish an explanation of their own scientific behavior in ordinary economic terms. To tell an economist that he chooses that type of work and viewpoint which will maximize his income is, he will hotly say, is [sic] a studied insult."
On Sun, Jun 05, 2005 at 12:25:46AM -0400, snitsnat wrote:
> awww. shoulda taken it 20 years later. then you could take entire navel
> gazing courses on just that problem! It's not really a new concern though.
> Alvin Gouldner wrote about it in _The Crisis of Western Sociology_ and I'm
> certain that others wrote about it before him. Just no time to go to the
> files to see:
>
>
>
> "sociologists keep two sets of books, one for the study of 'laymen' and
> another when he thinks about himself....the sociologist believes himself
> capable of making hundreds of purely rational decisions....he thinks of
> these as free technical decisions and of himself as acting in autonomous
> conformity with technical standards, rather than as a creature molded by
> social structure and culture. if he finds he has gone wrong, he thinks of
> himself as having made a mistake. a mistake is an outcome produced not by
> any social necessity, but by a corrigible ignorance, a lack of careful
> thought....
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu