Miguel de Unamuno Quotes
These terrible sociologists, who are the astrologers and alchemists of our twentieth century.
Unamuno, Miguel de. Tragic Sense of Life. Translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch, Macmillan and Co., 1921, p. 306.
Huntington, one of the better known political scientists had been nominated for admission as a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He was generally considered a shoe-in. However, some of his research had used extensive mathematical analysis to prove his conclusions. Lang a gadfly had actually read Huntington’s peer reviewed published Journal articles and found that the mathematics was very faulty, both in its application and execution. He opposed Huntington’s election and proceeded to present Huntington’s mathematics and conclusions to the members, who were themselves the best scientists of many different disciplines. They all realized that the Huntington work was incorrect. Huntington argued that as a Political Scientist he was using mathematics as a way of conceptually illustrating his points and not in a rigorous manner. Huntington was not elected to the academy. Lang frequently would take scientific evidence offered in Congressional Hearings, analyze it and then send a package to the media and members of Congress showing the errors. See {508154} for his cutting style with poor science.
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca.
