"This required the development of a view which allowed one to integrate research with belief, thing with person, fact with aesthetics, knowledge with application of knowledge"
About this Quote
Pike urges a holistic stance that refuses to split the world into tidy compartments. As a field linguist, theorist, and Christian intellectual, he sought a framework in which scientific rigor and lived conviction illuminate one another. Integrating research with belief does not mean smuggling doctrine into data; it means acknowledging that inquiry always rests on assumptions and values, and then disciplining those commitments through method. He wanted scholars to be transparent about their stance while remaining open to correction from evidence.
The pairing of thing with person resists a purely objectifying science. Language, for Pike, is inseparable from human behavior; it is not a self-contained object but an activity embedded in communities, intentions, and relationships. Treating speakers as persons, not merely data sources, changes how questions are asked, how consent is obtained, and how results are used. That same impulse underlies his emic/etic distinction: the insider viewpoint of meaning must be understood alongside the outsider analysis of structure, and the two correct and enrich one another.
Fact with aesthetics signals that form matters. Good science attends to pattern, elegance, and fit, not just accumulation of facts. In linguistics this means noticing rhythm, parallelism, and functional coherence, and letting description rise to the beauty of the phenomena. A theory should not only work; it should reveal.
Knowledge with application of knowledge captures his practical bent. Working with communities to develop orthographies, literacy programs, and translations, he tied theoretical insights to concrete outcomes. Knowledge is tested when it guides action and serves people.
Set against mid-20th-century moves to isolate language as an abstract system, his vision insists on unity: method anchored in values, analysis accountable to persons, facts shaped by form, and theory measured by use. The result is a humane science, one that seeks truth in ways that honor those whose lives it studies.
The pairing of thing with person resists a purely objectifying science. Language, for Pike, is inseparable from human behavior; it is not a self-contained object but an activity embedded in communities, intentions, and relationships. Treating speakers as persons, not merely data sources, changes how questions are asked, how consent is obtained, and how results are used. That same impulse underlies his emic/etic distinction: the insider viewpoint of meaning must be understood alongside the outsider analysis of structure, and the two correct and enrich one another.
Fact with aesthetics signals that form matters. Good science attends to pattern, elegance, and fit, not just accumulation of facts. In linguistics this means noticing rhythm, parallelism, and functional coherence, and letting description rise to the beauty of the phenomena. A theory should not only work; it should reveal.
Knowledge with application of knowledge captures his practical bent. Working with communities to develop orthographies, literacy programs, and translations, he tied theoretical insights to concrete outcomes. Knowledge is tested when it guides action and serves people.
Set against mid-20th-century moves to isolate language as an abstract system, his vision insists on unity: method anchored in values, analysis accountable to persons, facts shaped by form, and theory measured by use. The result is a humane science, one that seeks truth in ways that honor those whose lives it studies.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
|---|
More Quotes by Kenneth
Add to List
