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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
Resides
Unhappiness
Dramatic
Tragedy
Essence
Working
Things
Remorseless
Solemnity

More quotes by Garrett Hardin

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Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
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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.
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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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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.
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We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
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Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?
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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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The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.
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A finite world can support only a finite population therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
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Incommensurables cannot be compared.
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Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed.
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We see only what we have names for.
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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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In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
Garrett Hardin
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The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.
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(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
Garrett Hardin
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
Garrett Hardin
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Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
Garrett Hardin
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Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
Garrett Hardin