Peter L. Berger quotes

Peter L. Berger was an Austrian sociologist renowned for his work on the sociology of knowledge and the concept of social construction of reality. His influential writings significantly shaped contemporary sociological theory and the study of religion. He became widely known for co-authoring "The Social Construction of Reality" and for exploring how society and culture shape human perception. Here are 64 of his quotes:

So I think one can say on empirical grounds - not because of some philosophical principle - that you can't have democracy unless you have a market economy.

Peter L. Berger

It has been true in Western societies and it seems to be true elsewhere that you do not find democratic systems apart from capitalism, or apart from a market economy, if you prefer that term.

Peter L. Berger

Even if one is interested only in one's own society, which is one's prerogative, one can understand that society much better by comparing it with others.

Peter L. Berger

In science as in love a concentration on technique is quite likely to lead to impotence.

Peter L. Berger

The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened.

Peter L. Berger

Some people seem to gravitate from one fundamentalism to another, from some kind of secular fundamentalism into a religious fundamentalism or the other way around, which is not very helpful.

Peter L. Berger

When certain branches of the economy become obsolete, as in the case of the steel industry, not only do jobs disappear, which is obviously a terrible social hardship, but certain cultures also disappear.

Peter L. Berger

Even in a society as tightly controlled as Singapore's, the market creates certain forces which perhaps in the long run may lead to democracy.

Peter L. Berger

The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude.

Peter L. Berger

But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.

Peter L. Berger

The problem with liberal Protestantism in America is not that it has not been orthodox enough, but that it has lost a lot of religious substance.

Peter L. Berger

I'm sure Putnam is right that there's been a decline in certain kinds of organizations like bowling leagues. But people participate in communities in other ways.

Peter L. Berger

If you say simply that pressures toward democracy are created by the market, I would say yes.

Peter L. Berger

Some people think that as the Chinese economy becomes more and more capitalistic it will inevitably become more democratic.

Peter L. Berger

I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization.

Peter L. Berger

Our institute's agenda is relatively simple. We study the relationship between social-economic change and culture. By culture we mean beliefs, values and lifestyles. We cover a broad range of issues, and we work very internationally.

Peter L. Berger

If the cultural elite has its way, the U.S. will be much more like Europe.

Peter L. Berger

There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved.

Peter L. Berger

We also have a cultural phenomenon: the emergence of a global culture, or of cultural globalization.

Peter L. Berger

In a market economy, however, the individual has some possibility of escaping from the power of the state.

Peter L. Berger

It will be enough, for our purposes, to define 'reality' as a quality appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as having a being independent of our own volition (we cannot 'wish them away'), and to define 'knowledge' as the certainty that phenomena are real and that they possess specific characteristics.

Peter L. Berger

An intrinsic problem, similar to the one we discussed in connexion with tradition in general, presents itself with the process of transmission of the symbolic universe from one generation to another. Socialization is never completely successful. Some individuals 'inhabit' the transmitted universe more definitely than others.

Peter L. Berger