Kenneth E. Boulding

mathematics rigor economics mortis

"Mathematics brought rigor to Economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

knowledge information capital income structure improbable

"It [knowledge] is clearly related to information, which we can now measure; and an economist especially is tempted to regard knowledge as a kind of capital structure, corresponding to information as an income flow. Knowledge, that is to say, is some kind of improbable structure or stock made up essentially of patterns - that is, improbable arrangements, and the more improbable the arrangements, we might suppose, the more knowledge there is."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

love weak hate strong short long

"Know this: though love is weak and hate is strong, Yet hate is short, and love is very long."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

economics mathematics numbers formal relation

"It is almost as hard to define mathematics as it is to define economics, and one is tempted to fall back on the famous old definition attributed to Jacob Viner, "Economics is what economists do," and say that mathematics is what mathematicians do. A large part of mathematics deals with the formal relations of quantities or numbers."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

meek inherit earth law evolution

"The proposition that the meek (that is the adaptable and serviceable), inherit the earth is not merely a wishful sentiment of religion, but an iron law of evolution."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

social dynamics human history ecology evolution

"The social dynamics of human history, even more than that of biological evolution, illustrate the fundamental principle of ecological evolution - that everything depends on everything else. The nine elements that we have described in societal evolution of the three families of phenotypes - the phyla of things, organizations and people, the genetic bases in knowledge operating through energy and materials to produce phenotypes, and the three bonding relations of threat, integration and exchange - all interact on each other."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

observer space planet car detachable brain

"A somewhat casual observer from outer space might well deduce that the course of evolution in this planet had produced a species of large four-wheeled bugs with detachable brains; peculiar animals which rested when they sent their brains away from them but performed in rather predictable manner when their brains were recalled."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

1859 discover treasure chest oil gas energy spending enjoyment

"In 1859 the human race discovered a huge treasure chest in its basement. This was oil and gas, a fantastically cheap and easily available source of energy. We did, or at least some of us did, what anybody does who discovers a treasure in the basement - live it up, and we have been spending this treasure with great enjoyment."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

numbers simplification reality

"We should always bear in mind that numbers represent a simplification of reality."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

social science systems physical biological special cases

"The thing that distinguishes social systems from physical or even biological systems is their incomparable (and embarrassing) richness in special cases. Generalizations in the social sciences are mere pathways which lead through a riotous forest of individual trees, each a species unto itself. The social scientist who loses this sense of the essential individuality and uniqueness of each case is all too likely to make a solemn scientific ass of himself, especially if he thinks that his faceless generalizations are the equivalents of the rich vareity of the world."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

theory fact barren meaningless

"Theories without facts may be barren, but facts without theories are meaningless."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

exponential growth madman economist

"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

future world decision plan

"The world moves into the future as a result of decisions, not as a result of plans. Plans are significant only insofar as they affect decisions."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

economics growth addiction richer pollution environment

"Economics has been incurably growth-oriented and addicted to everybody growing richer, even at the cost of exhaustion of resources and pollution of the environment."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

equilibrium figment human imagination

"Equilibrium is a figment of the human imagination."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

society nightmare exhaustion materials circular flow waste

"If the society toward which we are developing is not to be a nightmare of exhaustion, we must use the interlude of the present era to develop a new technology which is based on a circular flow of materials such that the only sources of man's provisions will be his own waste products."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

physicist economist language silo profession

"Physicists only talk to physicists, economists to economists-worse still, nuclear physicists only talk to nuclear physicists and econometricians to econometricians. One wonders sometimes if science will not grind to a stop in an assemblage of walled-in hermits, each mumbling to himself words in a private language that only he can understand."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

earth infinite reservoir space ship

"As long as man was small in numbers and limited in technology, he could realistically regard the earth as an infinite reservoir, an infinite source of inputs and an infinite cesspool for outputs. Today we can no longer make this assumption. Earth has become a space ship, not only in our imagination but also in the hard realities of the social, biological, and physical system in which man is enmeshed."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

human condition experience past decision future pattern

"The human condition can almost be summed up in the observation that, whereas all experiences are of the past, all decisions are about the future. It is the great task of human knowledge to bridge this gap and to find those patterns in the past which can be projected into the future as realistic images."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

optimize enhance cretivity diversity resilience sustainability

"Don't go to great trouble to optimize something that never should be done at all. Aim to enhance total systems properties, such as creativity, stability, diversity, resilience, and sustainability - whether they are easily measured or not."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

religion human sacrifice nationalism

"The only religion that still demands human sacrifice is nationalism."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

decision uncertailty illusion catastrophe

"Deciding under uncertainty is bad enough, but deciding under an illusion of certainty is catastrophic."

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)

world dictatorship democratic government

"A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government.

—Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993)