Davis, M. (1971). That’s Interesting: Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 1(4), 309.
Today I read the essay by Murray Davies “That’s interesting!”. Which was – really interesting! The central tenant of the essay is to answer the question of “How do theories which are generally considered interesting differ from theories which are generally considered non-interesting?” The answer is given promptly in the opening summary: “Interesting theories are those which deny certain assumptions of their audience, while non-interesting theories are those which affirm certain assumptions of their audience”. Davis then walks through a number of various examples this can be done and gives historical examples, including among others Marx, Freud, Kant, and Durkheim. This is a really nice read – written in a clear and interesting fashion by someone who is able to reference a large variety of examples, especially from within social sciences.
Usefulness: clarifies thoughts on how to position a paper or hypothesis which has the remote possibility to actually generate some interest – not just fill up some more storage space in an eternal it-cloud.
Best quote: “A theorist is considered great, not because his theories are true, but because they are interesting. Those who carefully and exhaustively verify trivial theories are soon forgotten; whereas those who cursorily and expediently verify interesting theories are long remembered.”
Study in progress 