Societal Collapse/theories/toynbee%e2%80%99s Theory of Decay

Famous quotes containing the words societal, collapse, theories, theory and/or decay:

    Society’s double behavioral standard for women and for men is, in fact, a more effective deterrent than economic discrimination because it is more insidious, less tangible. Economic disadvantages involve ascertainable amounts, but the very nature of societal value judgments makes them harder to define, their effects harder to relate.
    Anne Tucker (b. 1945)

    Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because ‘experimental method’ used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own.
    Ian Hacking (b. 1936)

    The weakness of the man who, when his theory works out into a flagrant contradiction of the facts, concludes “So much the worse for the facts: let them be altered,” instead of “So much the worse for my theory.”
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    She is a prude in her own defence ... under the specious mask of propriety, she conceals the decay of her worn-out charms.
    Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)