Learning to exist in a world quite different from that which formed you is the condition, these days, of pursuing research you can on balance believe in and write sentences you can more or less live with. Clifford Geertz More Quotes by Clifford Geertz More Quotes From Clifford Geertz I had a hard time convincing students that they were going to North Africa to understand the North Africans, not to understand themselves. Clifford Geertz hard-times convincing students I have a social philosophy; you have political opinions; he has an ideology. Clifford Geertz political-opinions social philosophy If we wanted home truths, we should have stayed at home. Clifford Geertz should-have wanted home I think the perception of there being a deep gulf between science and the humanities is false Clifford Geertz perception humanity thinking Gender consciousness has become involved in almost every intellectual field: history, literature, science, anthropology. There's been an extraordinary advance Clifford Geertz fields intellectual literature What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to. Clifford Geertz construction data people I'm an inveterate fox and not a hedgehog, so I always think you should try everything Clifford Geertz hedgehogs trying thinking Anthropology never has had a distinct subject matter, and because it doesn't have a real method, there's a great deal of anxiety over what it is Clifford Geertz anxiety real matter I don't feel that an atmosphere of debate and total disagreement and argument is such a bad thing. It makes for a vital and alive field. Clifford Geertz atmosphere alive fields The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive. Clifford Geertz persuasive research criticism The way in which mathematicians and physicists and historians talk is quite different, and what a physicist means by physical intuition and what a mathematician means by beauty or elegance are things worth thinking about. Clifford Geertz intuition mean thinking I think what's known about neurology is still scattered and uncertain Clifford Geertz neurology uncertain thinking I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it. Clifford Geertz research literature writing I don't have the notion that everybody has to write in some single academic style Clifford Geertz style academic writing Most anthropologists are doing straightforward ethnography, and should Clifford Geertz ethnography straightforward should I don't write drafts. I write from the beginning to the end, and when it's finished, it's done Clifford Geertz done ends writing I think feminism has had a major impact on anthropology Clifford Geertz impact feminist thinking I'm writing a review of three books on feminism and science, and it's about social constructionism. So I would say I'm a social constructionist, whatever that means Clifford Geertz writing mean book If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code Clifford Geertz information want writing I never leave a sentence or a paragraph until I'm satisfied with it Clifford Geertz paragraph sentences satisfied
