Good intentions fail without social forms to express them

Evidence

Many Buffaloes wanted to have un-racist attitudes, but did not know how to create contexts in which these attitudes could find a social form. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 763

Categorization

• XREF: Speaks directly to reader’s positive-solidarity question: shared constructive projects provide the ‘social form’ that attitudinal goodwill otherwise lacks. — connects to: Good intentions do not guarantee good philosophical outcomes; Actions carry special social controls that experiences do not — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 615; Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194 (+4 more)
• ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘grafting as infrastructure’ theme: solidarity needs a material-social scaffold (a project, a context) much as a tree needs structure to climb.
• DEEPTHINKING: A compact theory of institutional design: attitudes need forms to become real, and the absence of forms nullifies the attitudes.

Broader Connections

• Good intentions do not guarantee good philosophical outcomes #expands (0.80)
• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194
• Closure in social relations is necessary for effective norms to emerge #expands (0.75) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 114
• Individual salvation attempts mystify freedom while only social action authenticates it #expands (0.74) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1916
• Actions carry special social controls that experiences do not #expands (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 615
• Trust cannot be assumed to emerge naturally in human interaction #qualifies (0.72) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2811