Elias, Norbert
▶ Watch on YouTubeCoverage note: full (a very short auto-generated transcript of about 300 words, with one garbled phrase in the middle, noted below)
Core ideas
In this brief extract Elias presents what he sees as the central task of sociology: to gain more certain knowledge of "the human level of the universe which we form with each other." He argues that our human world is "to a large extent an undiscovered world" and that we do not really understand ourselves. He is convinced, while admitting that he cannot prove it, that sociologists could produce more knowledge with practical application than they do today, knowledge that would help with the vital problems of living together.
He frames this as an urgent human task: "we have nothing but ourselves, we mankind flying on this lonely little planet," and there is no greater task, before destroying ourselves, than finding out how to arrange our lives so that we do not constantly hurt ourselves while still gaining as much pleasurable excitement and satisfaction as possible. He then adds a methodological warning: this cannot be done by letting our wishes dominate our thinking (a phrase in the transcript is garbled here, something like "allowing once vicious"). Although we all wish for the same good outcomes, letting wishes govern thought prevents us from doing the first thing that has to be done: to find out how our life together really works. The argument is thus a plea for detached, reality-oriented social science as a precondition of any practical improvement.
Excerpts
“We do not really understand ourselves, and that is the central task, as I understand it, of sociology: to gain more certain knowledge of the human level of the universe which we form with each other.”
“We have nothing but ourselves, we mankind, flying on this lonely little planet. There is no greater task, no other task really, than, before destroying ourselves, to find out how we can arrange our lives in such a way that we do not constantly hurt ourselves, and also gain as much pleasurable excitement and satisfaction as we can.”
“By allowing our wishes to dominate our thinking, we prevent ourselves from doing the first thing which has to be done, and that is to find out how our life together really works.”