Universal techniques exist only as incarnated in concrete individual acts

Evidence

It can further be deduced that every truth, even if it is universal, and even if it can be expressed by an abstract formula of a mathematical kind (for the sake of the theoreticians), owes its effectiveness to its being expressed in the language appropriate to specific concrete situations. If it cannot be expressed in such specific terms, it is a byzantine and scholastic abstraction, good only for phrasemongers to toy with. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 812 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The problem arises of whether a theoretical truth, whose discovery corresponded to a specific practice, can be generalised and considered as universal for a historical epoch. The proof of its universality consists precisely 1. in its becoming a stimulus to know better the concrete reality of a situation that is different from that in which it was discovered (this is the principal measure of its fecundity); 2. when it has stimulated and helped this better understanding of concrete reality, in its capacity to incorporate itself in that same reality as if it were originally an expression of it. It is in this incorporation that its real universality lies, and not simply in its logical or formal coherence, or in the fact that it is a useful polemical tool for confounding the enemy. In short, the principle must always rule that ideas are not born of other ideas, philosophies of other philosophies; they are a continually renewed expression of real historical development. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 812 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Each science constructs its own method; there is no universal method; Universal truths are effective only when expressed in concrete situations’ language. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 812; Abstract theory is clarified only through concrete applied cases — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 11 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Each science constructs its own method; there is no universal method #corroborates (0.85)
• Universal truths are effective only when expressed in concrete situations’ language. #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 812
• A theory’s universality is shown by its capacity to illuminate new concrete situations. #expands (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 812
• Abstract theory is clarified only through concrete applied cases #corroborates (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 11
• Universals function as normative ideals, not logical class concepts #qualifies (0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 790