Social Sciences as Sorcery
By Stanislav Andreski
Published by ST. Martin’s Press, NY 1973. First US Edition, first printing. Very good hardcover in very good dustjacket. Tight binding, solid spine, clean unmarked text. Small 8vo, 238 pages. Out of print.
Social Science as Sorcery was crafted as a waking call to all those who seriously consider the moral questions of man and the future. This should be required reading to anyone interested in going to graduate school and pursuing a PhD in any of the fields of the Social Studies; Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, History or Political Science.
One may not agree with all that Andreski says, and his tone belies a certain elitism that some may find grating, but this book ought in any case be at the top of reading lists for courses on ‘research methodology’ and ‘theories of social science’ whether quantitative or qualitative. Any student embarking on a PhD should get a hold of a copy: as Andreski himself puts it, ‘the usage of mumbo-jumbo makes it very difficult for a beginner to find his way; because if he reads or hears famous professors from the most prestigious universities in the world without being able to understand them, then how can he know whether this is due to his lack of intelligence or preparation, or to their vacuity?’ But the book has wider relevance yet, to debunk and demystify some tendencies that are still strong in academia and analysis today — the excessive theorisation, the emphasis on method over substance and the pleonastic means of expression. One quotation from the book’s first chapter:
How can the truth prevail? The answer (which gives some ground for hope) is that people interested in ideas, and prepared to think them through and express them regardless of personal disadvantage, have always been few; and if knowledge could not advance without a majority on the right side, there would never have been any progress at all — because it has always been easier to get into the limelight, as well as to make money, by charlatanry, doctrinarism, sycophancy and soothing or stirring oratory than by logical and fearless thinking. No, the reason why human understanding has been able to advance in the past, and may do so in the future, is that true insights are cumulative and retain their value regardless of what happens to their discoverers; while fads and stunts may bring an immediate profit to the impresarios, but lead nowhere in the long run, cancel each other out, and are dropped as soon as their promoters are no longer there (or have lost the power) to direct the show. Anyway, let us not despair.
The book's chapters are as follows -
1 Why Foul One's Nest?
2 The Witch Doctor's Dilemma
3 Manipulation Through Description
4 Censorship Through Mass Production
5 In the Footsteps of Monsieur Pangloss and Dr. Bowdler
6 The Smoke Screen of Jargon
7 The Uses of Absurdity
8 Evasion in the Guise of Objectivity
9 Hiding Behind Methodology
10 Quantification as Camouflage
11 Promiscuous Crypto-Conservatism
12 Ideology Underneath Terminology
13 Techno-Totemism and Creeping Crypto-Totalitarianism
14 The Law of Lighter Weights Rising to the Top
15 Gresham's and Parkinson's Laws Combined
16 Ivory Towers or Bureaucratic Treadmills
17 The Barbarian Assault on the Corrupted Citadels of Learning
18 Conclusion: Ethics and the Advancement of Knowledge
There’s a reason this book is out of print - read the books they don’t want you to read.
Stanisław Andrzejewski or Stanislav Andreski (1919 -2007) was a Polish-British sociologist. He is known for his indictment of the "pretentious nebulous verbosity" endemic in the modern social sciences in his classic work Social Sciences as Sorcery (1972).
Andrzejewski was a Polish Army officer. During the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets. He escaped to Britain and fought against the Germans on the Western Front in Władysław Anders' Polish II Corps.
At the University of Reading, United Kingdom, he was a professor of sociology, a department he founded in 1965
Loc: A5
Social Sciences as Sorcery
By Stanislav Andreski
Published by ST. Martin’s Press, NY 1973. First US Edition, first printing. Very good hardcover in very good dustjacket. Tight binding, solid spine, clean unmarked text. Small 8vo, 238 pages. Out of print.
Social Science as Sorcery was crafted as a waking call to all those who seriously consider the moral questions of man and the future. This should be required reading to anyone interested in going to graduate school and pursuing a PhD in any of the fields of the Social Studies; Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, History or Political Science.
One may not agree with all that Andreski says, and his tone belies a certain elitism that some may find grating, but this book ought in any case be at the top of reading lists for courses on ‘research methodology’ and ‘theories of social science’ whether quantitative or qualitative. Any student embarking on a PhD should get a hold of a copy: as Andreski himself puts it, ‘the usage of mumbo-jumbo makes it very difficult for a beginner to find his way; because if he reads or hears famous professors from the most prestigious universities in the world without being able to understand them, then how can he know whether this is due to his lack of intelligence or preparation, or to their vacuity?’ But the book has wider relevance yet, to debunk and demystify some tendencies that are still strong in academia and analysis today — the excessive theorisation, the emphasis on method over substance and the pleonastic means of expression. One quotation from the book’s first chapter:
How can the truth prevail? The answer (which gives some ground for hope) is that people interested in ideas, and prepared to think them through and express them regardless of personal disadvantage, have always been few; and if knowledge could not advance without a majority on the right side, there would never have been any progress at all — because it has always been easier to get into the limelight, as well as to make money, by charlatanry, doctrinarism, sycophancy and soothing or stirring oratory than by logical and fearless thinking. No, the reason why human understanding has been able to advance in the past, and may do so in the future, is that true insights are cumulative and retain their value regardless of what happens to their discoverers; while fads and stunts may bring an immediate profit to the impresarios, but lead nowhere in the long run, cancel each other out, and are dropped as soon as their promoters are no longer there (or have lost the power) to direct the show. Anyway, let us not despair.
The book's chapters are as follows -
1 Why Foul One's Nest?
2 The Witch Doctor's Dilemma
3 Manipulation Through Description
4 Censorship Through Mass Production
5 In the Footsteps of Monsieur Pangloss and Dr. Bowdler
6 The Smoke Screen of Jargon
7 The Uses of Absurdity
8 Evasion in the Guise of Objectivity
9 Hiding Behind Methodology
10 Quantification as Camouflage
11 Promiscuous Crypto-Conservatism
12 Ideology Underneath Terminology
13 Techno-Totemism and Creeping Crypto-Totalitarianism
14 The Law of Lighter Weights Rising to the Top
15 Gresham's and Parkinson's Laws Combined
16 Ivory Towers or Bureaucratic Treadmills
17 The Barbarian Assault on the Corrupted Citadels of Learning
18 Conclusion: Ethics and the Advancement of Knowledge
There’s a reason this book is out of print - read the books they don’t want you to read.
Stanisław Andrzejewski or Stanislav Andreski (1919 -2007) was a Polish-British sociologist. He is known for his indictment of the "pretentious nebulous verbosity" endemic in the modern social sciences in his classic work Social Sciences as Sorcery (1972).
Andrzejewski was a Polish Army officer. During the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets. He escaped to Britain and fought against the Germans on the Western Front in Władysław Anders' Polish II Corps.
At the University of Reading, United Kingdom, he was a professor of sociology, a department he founded in 1965
Loc: A5
