On Human Dignity (1)

"A life is a life; there it is; if anything is sacred, a life is. The question: Of what value is a human life? is indecent. The question: why do you want to stay alive? is a tyrant's question. It should not be asked; any answer will always be off the mark; the words will fill in poorly for the appropriate silence."

--George Kateb, Human Dignity, 2011: pp. 40.

Between Sociological Imagination and the Geographical Imagination

A most pertinent quote from Harvey,
"This distinction between the geographical imagination and the sociological imaginations is artificial when we seek to relate to the problems of the city, but it is all too real when we examine the ways we think about the city. There are plenty of those possessed with a powerful sociological imagination (C. Wright Mills among them) who nevertheless seem to live and work in a spaceless world. There are also those, possessed of a powerful geographical imagination or spatial consciousness, who fail to recognize that the way space is fashioned can have a profound effect upon social processes--hence the numerous examples of beautiful but unlivable designs in modern living."

(from David Harvey's Social Justice and the City, revised edition, 2009: pp.24)