Such abstraction which refuses to accept the given universe of facts as the final context of validation, such "transcending” analysis of the facts in the light of their arrested and denied possibilities, pertains to the very structure of social theory. Herbert Marcuse
Change the instruments and you will change the entire social theory that goes with them. Bruno Latour
I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory. Paul Farmer
The touchstone, therefore, should be how far any political or social theory enables the individual to rise above his petty self and thus think in terms of the good of all. The law of life should not be competition or acquisitiveness but cooperation, the good of each contributing to the good of all. Jawaharlal Nehru
We cannot wait until we agree upon the truths of a new social theory to think and act as democratic experimentalists. We must find the ideas our efforts and commitments require, and try to make no assumptions that the facts of social reality and historical experience invalidate. Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Reason and Revolution, Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory. Herbert Marcuse