Quote

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.

Garrett Hardin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Ideas
Reasons
Reason
Atheism
Book
Terms
Believe
Amount
Darwin
Dangerous
Skeptic
Term
Review
Religious
Reviews
Idea
Notice

More quotes by Garrett Hardin

Image
Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
Garrett Hardin
Image
Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
Garrett Hardin
Image
In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
Garrett Hardin
Image
The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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
Image
A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
Garrett Hardin
Image
However, I think the major opposition to ecology has deeper roots than mere economics ecology threatens widely held values so fundamental that they must be called religious.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
Garrett Hardin
Image
The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.
Garrett Hardin