Zygmunt Bauman Quotes on Knowledge
Zygmunt Bauman was a Polish-British sociologist and social philosopher and one of the most widely read social theorists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This page collects quotes attributed to Zygmunt Bauman on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Zygmunt Bauman:
“Strangers are people who do not fit our cognitive maps; that is what makes them strange.”
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“From an interview, as cited in "Passion and pessimism" , The Guardian (5 April 2003)”
[Referring to his father] In fact, we almost lost our lives because of his honesty. In 1939, we were running away from Posnan as the Germans were invading - the town was almost on the German border. We took the last train east, but we were stopped at a station which was being bombed by the Germans. We should have run away from the station because that was the object of the bombing, but he wanted t -
“[After an article by Bogdan Musiał was published in Poland alleging Bauman had worked for the Polish secret service] The fact that I for three years cooperated with intelligence - well, that's the only thing I never said.”
Wikiquote -
“[Asked "Did counter-espionage mean informing on people who were fighting against the communist project?"] That's what would be expected from me, but I don't remember doing [anything like that]. I had nothing to do - I was sitting in my office and writing - it was hardly a field in which you could collect interesting information.”
Wikiquote -
“[G]radually, like so many others in my position, I came to the conclusion that there was a yawning gap between the official word and the practice ... so I became a revisionist, rejecting the official version of Marxism.”
From an interview with Aida Edemariam , as cited in "Professor with a past" , The Guardian (28 April 2007) -
“Quoted in "Ziggy Stardust" , New Humanist (2004, posted 31 May 2007)”
A good society is a society which believes that it is not good enough; that it is the task of the collectivity to insure individuals against individually suffered misfortune; and that the quality of society is measured by the quality of life of its weakest, just like the carrying power of a bridge is measured by its weakest pillar.