Everything Is Obvious

own observations of the world is whether these patterns are driven by psychological preferences or structural constraints

many times more successful than the average. But what we don’t know is how—or even if—the forces of social influence operating at the level of the individual drive inequality and unpredictability at the scale of entire markets

Surely the real nature of science is not to exhibit any particular form at all, but rather to follow scientific procedures—of theory, observation, and experiment—that incrementally and iteratively chip away at the mysteries of the world. And surely the point of these procedures is not to discover laws of any particular kind, but rather to figure things out—to solve problems. So the less we worry about looking for general laws in social science, and the more we worry about solving actual problems, the more progress we are likely to make

what sociology has to offer seems like common sense, in other words, it is not just because everything about human behavior seems obvious once you know the answer

phenomena but specific enough to say something concrete and useful. For example, the “theory of relative deprivation” states that people feel distressed by circumstances only inasmuch as their hardship exceeds that of the people around them. Thus if your house burns down in a freak fire, you’re devastated, but if your whole city is wiped out in an earthquake and hundreds of your neighbors die, you feel lucky to be alive. It’s not a completely general theory, claiming only to predict how people respond to adversity, but it also aims to apply to perceptions of adversity quite broadly. Likewise, the “theory of the role set” stresses that each individual plays not only multiple

was Spencer, in fact, not Darwin, who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest.” Spencer’s

in this country than in any other. In Sandel’s view, one cannot simply decide at one’s convenience when to identify with one’s ancestors and when to absolve oneself of them. Either you’re a part of that extended community, in which case you must share the costs as well as the benefits, or you’re not, in which case you get neither

The very ties that give our lives meaning also constrain us, and it is precisely by constraining us that they give us meaning

important. The real point is that either they are libertarians, who should bear the full weight of their own failures as well as their successes, or else they are Rawlsians, paying their dues to the system that takes care of them. They should not be able to switch philosophies at their convenience

real reason is philosophical consistency. When times are good, banks wish to be perceived as independent risk-taking entities, entitled to the full fruits of their hard-won labors. But during a crisis they wish to be treated as critical elements in a larger system to which their failure would pose an existential threat. Whether