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The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.

Garrett Hardin

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Garrett Hardin
Age: 88 †
Born: 1915
Born: April 21
Died: 2003
Died: September 14
Biologist
Demographer
Ecologist
Statistician
University Teacher
Dallas
Texas
Garrett James Hardin
Garrett J. Hardin
Social
Coercion
Arrangements
Injustice
Produce
Create
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Responsibility

More quotes by Garrett Hardin

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A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.
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Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor speciality.
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Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.
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(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
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Numeracy: 1. The art of putting numbers to things, that is, assigning amounts to variables in order that practical decisions may be reach. 2. That aspect of education (beyond mere literacy) which takes account of quantitative aspects of reality.
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Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public, the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable.
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Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
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The greatest folly is to accept expert statements uncritically. At the very least, we should always seek another opinion.
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Religious reasons, which is no reason. I notice Skeptic had a review of Dennett's book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Religious reasons amount to what Dennett terms skyhooks. Do you believe in skyhooks? I don't.
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You can never do merely one thing. The law applies to any action that changes something in a complex system. The point is that an action taken to alleviate a problem will trigger several effects, some of which may offset or even negate the one intended.
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Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.
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We see only what we have names for.
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No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.
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In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable
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Moreover, the practical recommendations deduced from ecological principles threaten the vested interests of commerce it is hardly surprising that the financial and political power created by these investments should be used sometimes to suppress environmental impact studies.
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Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
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In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
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But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.
Garrett Hardin