"If we take the simple democratic view that what men are interested in is all that concerns us, then we are accepting the values that have been inculcated, often accidentally and often deliberately by vested interests.  These values are often the only ones men have had any chance to develop.  They are unconsciously acquired habits rather than choices.

"If we take the dogmatic view that what is to men's interests, whether they are interested in it or not, is all that need concern us morally, then we run the risk of violating democratic values.  We may become manipulators or coercers, or both, rather than persuaders within a society in which men are trying to reason together and in which the value of reason is held in high esteem.

"What I am suggesting is that by addressing ourselves to issues and to troubles, and formulating them as problems of social science, we stand the best chance, I believe the only chance, to make reason democratically relevant to human affairs in a free society, and so realize the classic values that underlie the promise of our studies" (The Sociological Imagination, 1959, p. 194).