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Industrial Society is not merely one containing…

“Industrial Society is not merely one containing 'industry,' large-scale productive units capable of supplying man's material needs in a way which can eliminate poverty: it is also a society in which knowledge plays a part wholly different from that which it played in earlier social forms, and…” quote by Ernest Gellner
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“Industrial Society is not merely one containing 'industry,' large-scale productive units capable of supplying man's material needs in a way which can eliminate poverty: it is also a society in which knowledge plays a part wholly different from that which it played in earlier social forms, and which indeed possesses a quite different type of knowledge. Modern science is inconceivable outside an industrial society: but modern industrial society is equally inconceivable without modern science. Roughly, science is the mode of cognition of industrial society, and industry is the ecology of science.”

Ernest Gellner

About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Industrial societies intertwine knowledge and production; each sustains the other.

In simple terms: Science and industry depend on each other.

Key Takeaway

Recognize the mutual support of knowledge and production.

Themes

industrialization knowledge science

Mood

analytical critical

Type

academic philosophical

When to use this quote

  • policy making
  • technological development
  • education planning

Key Concepts

sociology economics

Questions to Reflect On

  • How does knowledge shape modern economies?
  • What risks arise from this interdependence?
A Different Perspective

May understate cultural and environmental impacts.

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