Skip to content

Metis, with the premium it places on practical knowledge, experience, and stochastic reasoning, is of course not merely the now-superseded precursor of scientific knowledge. It is the mode of reasoning most appropriate to complex material and social tasks where the uncertainties are so daunting that we must trust our (experienced) intuition and feel our way.

— James C. Scott Seeing Like a State (1997)

Another quote →

More quotes by James C. Scott

Changing the rules of regulations is simpler than eliciting the behavior that conforms to them.

Seeing Like a State (1997)

An illegible society, then, is a hindrance to any effective intervention by the state, whether the purpose of that intervention is plunder or public welfare.

Seeing Like a State (1997)

We miniaturize, and thereby domesticate, the larger phenomena that are outside our control, often with benign intentions.

Seeing Like a State (1997)

As we shall see with urban planning, revolutionary theory, collectivization, and rural resettlement, a whole world lying "outside the brackets" returned to haunt this technical vision.

Seeing Like a State (1997)

Redesigning the physical layout of a village is simpler than transforming its social and productive life. For obvious reasons, political elites–particularly authoritarian high-modernist elites–typically begin with the changes in the formal structure and rules.

Seeing Like a State (1997)

All James C. Scott quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James C. Scott (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.