Pierre Bourdieu, a preeminent social scientist and influential public intellectual:
“Those who have the good fortune to be able to devote their lives to the study of the social world cannot stand aside, neutral and indifferent, from the struggles in which the future of the world is at stake.”
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2003. Firing Back: Against the Tyranny of the Market 2. London and New York: Verso. (p. 11)
Public engagement is a moral obligation of social scientists.
(Pierre Bourdieu speaking at an unemployed demonstration in Paris on January 16, 1998)
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Another important intellectual and social scientists Paul Baran, also, agreed with Pierre Bourdieu, writing about the “intellectual pledge”, which means that social scientists or philosopher can not
avoid to confront their own cultural, economic or social realities. The question is: Which is the intellectual mission of the social scientists in a modern society?
Sorry to sound so heartless but, yes we can. In my opinion, the job of a social scientist is to stand outside the situation and study, describe, analyze, and report what is happening in our world. As humans we do have opinions and many taint their reports with their opinions. Many social scientists are very active in many causes. But i feel there always needs to be a neutral person providing an outside look at our world. It is the way of science.
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