Theory clarifies social fate even if it cannot prevent it.

Evidence

I do not claim that conceptual clarification and theory building provide us with an effective instrument to avoid such a fate. But they may help us to see clearly what happens. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1455

Categorization

• XREF: Frames the reader’s own purpose: analytical integration of Saramago and Luhmann/Hardin is diagnostic clarity, not prevention—parallels how the blind learn from the doctor’s wife’s seeing. — connects to: An irrational social whole cannot be grasped by a rational, consistent theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2390; Utopian thinking’s value survives even where its theoretical basis is flawed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2321; Behaviorism’s danger is that it could become true, not that it is false — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1217