Claude Lévi-Strauss describes (though to illustrate a different point) a captain at sea, his ship reduced to a frail raft without sails, who, by enforcing a meticulous protocol on his crew, is able to distract them from nostalgia for a safe harbor and from the desire for a destination. Share with your friends. Author: Levi-Strauss Quotes Category: French Scientist Quotes "The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions." The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him. Claude Lévi-Strauss quotes. They are protected from criticism and analysis because they are irrational. Goodreads helps you follow your favorite authors. "Totemism". Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of. “Tristes Tropiques”, p.145, Penguin, Claude Levi-Strauss (2012). Well, I certainly don’t believe that, because I cannot conceive that a day will come when science will be complete and achieved.”, “One must be very naïve or dishonest to imagine that men choose their beliefs independently of their situation.”, “¿Qué oímos en esas conferencias y qué leemos en esos libros? Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction. Scientific knowledge advances haltingly and is stimulated by contention and doubt. Our students wanted to know everything: but only the newest theory seemed to them worth bothering with. We’d love your help. (p.29-30)”, “Aceptar como tema de discusión, una categoría que nos parece falsa nos expone siempre a un riesgo: el de mantener, en virtud de la atención que se le presta, alguna ilusión acerca de su realidad.”. Welcome back. October 2009. Social life consists in destroying that which gives it its savour.”, “Les tentatives faites pour connaître la richesse et l'originalité des cultures humaines, et pour les réduire à l'état de répliques inégalement arriérées de la civilisation occidentale, se heurtent à une autre difficulté, qui est beaucoup plus profonde : en gros (et exception faite de l'Amérique, sur laquelle nous allons revenir), toutes les sociétés humaines ont derrière elles un passé qui est approximativement du même ordre de grandeur. “Antropologlar, yaşam biçimlerimizin, inandığımız değerlerin, mümkün olan yegâne yaşam biçimleri ve değerler olmadığını; başka yaşam tarzlarının, başka değer sistemlerinin de insan topluluklarının mutluluğa ulaşmasına imkân vermiş olduğunu ve hâlâ da vermeye devam ettiğini kanıtlamaya çalışırlar. But we are also right to cherish those very imperfections we are endeavouring to eliminate. En vérité, il n'existe pas de peuples enfants ; tous sont adultes, même ceux qui n'ont pas tenu le journal de leur enfance et de leur adolescence. "All Things Considered", www.npr.org. “Tristes Tropiques”, p.44, Penguin. Understanding arises from reducing one type of reality into another. Each time it had a new fascination for me. I think that a society cannot live without a certain number of irrational beliefs. For everything is history: What was said yesterday is history, what was said a minute ago is history. Here you will find all the famous Claude Lévi-Strauss quotes. The barbarian is, first and foremost, the man who believes in barbarism.”, “The first thing we see as we travel round the world is our own filth, thrown into the face of mankind.”, “Il ne peut y avoir une civilisation mondiale puisque la civilisation implique la coexistence de cultures offrant entre elles le maximum de diversité.”, “The wise man is not he who gives the right answers; he is the one who asks the right questions.”, “while I complain of being able to glimpse no more than the shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is taking shape at this very moment, since I have not reached the stage of development at which I would be capable of perceiving it.”, “La tolérance n'est pas une position contemplative, dispensant les indulgences à ce qui fut ou à ce qui est. The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions. Cela signifie deux choses : d'abord que le "progrès" (si ce terme convient encore pour désigner une réalité très différente de celle à laquelle on l'avait d'abord appliqué) n'est ni nécessaire, ni continue ; il procède par sauts, par bonds, ou, comme diraient les biologistes, par mutations. With all its technical sophistication, the photographic camera remains a coarse device compared to the human hand and brain. Normally”, “In Martinique, I had visited rustic and neglected rum-distilleries where the equipment and the methods used had not changed since the eighteenth century. Nor must we forget that in science there are no final truths. Henceforth, man's daily bill of fare will consist only of this one item. C'est une attitude dynamique, qui consiste à prévoir, à comprendre et à promouvoir ce qui veut être.”, “Just as the individual is not alone in the group, nor any one society alone among the others, so man is not alone in the universe. – Claude Lévi-Strauss Rate it: The only phenomenon with which writing has always been concomitant is the creation of cities and empires, that is the integration of large numbers of individuals into a political system, and their grading into castes or classes. Fashion dominated their interest: they valued ideas not for themselves but for the prestige that they could wring from them.”, “Not all poisonous juices are burning or bitter nor is everything which is burning and bitter poisonous.”, “I hate travelling and explorers.