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The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.

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
Unhappiness
Dramatic
Tragedy
Essence
Working
Things
Remorseless
Solemnity
Resides

More quotes by Garrett Hardin

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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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Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'
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But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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We see only what we have names for.
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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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Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor speciality.
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We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
Garrett Hardin
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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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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
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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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(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
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The greatest folly is to accept expert statements uncritically. At the very least, we should always seek another opinion.
Garrett Hardin
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Incommensurables cannot be compared.
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Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.
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The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.
Garrett Hardin
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The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.
Garrett Hardin
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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.
Garrett Hardin
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In an approximate way, the logic of commons has been understood for a long time, perhaps since the discovery of agriculture or the invention of private property in real estate.
Garrett Hardin