Prime Mover - Social Science Theory

Social Science Theory

  • A hypothetical person that has a significant impact on society and history due to the exercise of their free will, unfettered by external psychological influences or social forces; also the name of the theory that affirms the existence and possibility of such people.
  • Regarding socio-political complexity, the term Prime Mover describes any influence upon a social group that leads to a higher degree of societal complexity.

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Famous quotes containing the words social, science and/or theory:

    “That a majority of women do not wish for any important change in their social and civil condition, merely proves that they are the unreflecting slaves of custom.”
    —Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)

    “Science in England, in America, is jealous of theory, hates the name of love and moral purpose. There’s revenge for this humanity. What manner of man does science make? The boy is not attracted. He says, I do not wish to be such a kind of man as my professor is.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of gov’t as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by gov’t. Somewhere in between and in gradations is the group that has the sense that gov’t exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.”
    —Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)