Kenneth E. Boulding Quotes - Page 4

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• Humble, honest, ignorance is one of the finest flowers of the human spirit

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Flower, Humble, Ignorance

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• Are we to regard the world of nature simply as a storehouse to be robbed for the immediate benefit of man?

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Nature, Men, World

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• General Systems Theory is a name which has come into use to describe a level of theoretical model-building which lies somewhere between the highly generalized constructions of pure mathematics and the specific theories of the specialized disciplines. Mathematics attempts to organize highly general relationships into a coherent system, a system however which does not have any necessary connections with the "real" world around us. It studies all thinkable relationships abstracted from any concrete situation or body of empirical knowledge.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Real, Lying, Names

  "General Systems Theory - The Skeleton of Science". Management Science, Volume 2. No. 3, pp. 197-208, www.panarchy.org. April 1956.

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• There are, of course, a number of epistemological questions, some of which lie more in the province of the philosopher than they do the economist or the social scientist. The one with which I am particularly concerned here is that of the role of knowledge in social systems, both as a product of the past and as a determinant of the future.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Lying, Past, Numbers

  "The economics of knowledge and the knowledge of economics" by Kenneth E. Boulding in "American Economic Review" (pp. 1-13), May 16, 1966.

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• The very act of thinking about power in our lives and experiences creates a process of revelation and self-analysis that may even make us look at ourselves in a new light... thinking about power and its complex manifestations may not simply lead to a better understanding of the abstract complexities of society, but may have an effect on one?s own image and identity. Perhaps a warning label should be placed on the cover.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Thinking, Self, Light

  Kenneth E. Boulding (1990). “Three Faces of Power”, p.259, SAGE

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• In view of the importance of philanthropy in our society, it is surprising that so little attention has been given to it by economic or social theorists. In economic theory, especially, the subject is almost completely ignored. This is not, I think, because economists regard mankind as basically selfish or even because economic man is supposed to act only in his self-interest; it is rather because economics has essentially grown up around the phenomenon of exchange and its theoretical structure rests heavily on this process.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Selfish, Men, Thinking

  "Notes on a Theory of Philanthropy". "Philanthropy and Public Policy", edited by Frank G. Dickinson, 1962.

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• Knowledge exists in minds, not in books. Before what has been found can be used by practitioners, someone must organize it, integrate it, extract the message.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Book, Mind, Messages

  Attributed in "Sport in perspective" by John T. Partington, Terry Orlick, John H. Salmela, (p. 94), 1982.

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• One of the most important skills of the economist, therefore, is that of simplification of the model. Two important methods of simplification have been developed by economists. One is the method of partial equilibrium analysis (or microeconomics), generally associated with the name of Alfred Marshall and the other is the method of aggregation (or macro-economics), associated with the name of John Maynard Keynes.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Skills, Names, Two

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 19, 1958.

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• Economics, we learn in the history of thought, only became a science by escaping from the casuistry and moralizing of medieval thought.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Escaping, Medieval, Economics

  "Economics As A Moral Science" by Kenneth E. Boulding, in "American Economic Review", 59 (1), (p. 12), March 1969.

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• In any evolutionary process, even in the arts, the search for novelty becomes corrupting.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Art, Novelty, Artistic

  "The Science Revelation". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 26, nr. 7. p. 16, September 1970.

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• The evolutionary vision is agnostic in regard to systems in the universe of greater complexity than those of which human beings have clear knowledge.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Vision, Agnostic, Complexity

  "Ecodynamics: A New Theory Of Societal Evolution". Book by Kenneth E. Boulding, 1978.

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• Reality, in its quantitative aspect, must be considered as a system of populations... The general study of the equilibria and dynamics of populations seems to have no name; but as it has probably reached its highest development in the biological study known as 'ecology,' this name may well be given to it.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Reality, Names, Population

  "A Reconstruction of Economics". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 5, 1950.

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• At the opposite pole from the gift is tribute - that is, a grant made out of fear and under threat. A threat is a statement of the form "you do something that I want or I will do something that you do not want.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Opposites, Want, Form

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• The use of isoquants to describe the production function did not develop to any great extent until the thirties.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Use, Function, Productions

  "The Theory of the Firm in the Last Ten Years". The American Economic Review, Volume 32, No. 4, p. 800, December 1942.

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• [on the theory of the firm] It is exactly analogous to the analysis of the reactions of a consumer by means of indifferent curves. Indeed, a consumer is merely a 'firm' whose product is 'utility.'

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Mean, Curves, Analysis

  "The theory of the firm in the last ten Years" by Kenneth E. Boulding in "The American Economic Review", Volume 32, No. 4 (pp. 791-802), December 1942.

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• There is something, however humble, which can properly be called skill among those who recognise themselves as economists.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Humble, Skills, Economist

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 4, 1958.

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• [The notion of equilibrium] is a notion which can be employed usefully in varying degrees of looseness. It is an absolutely indispensable part of the toolbag of the economist and one which he can often contribute usefully to other sciences which are occasionally apt to get lost in the trackless exfoliations of purely dynamic systems.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Degrees, Lost, Equilibrium

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 14, 1958.

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• The ability to work with systems of general equilibrium is perhaps one of the most important skills of the economist - a skill which he shares with many other scientists, but in which he has perhaps a certain comparative advantage.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Skills, Important, Scientist

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 15, 1958.

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• The concept of need is often looked upon rather unfavorably by economists, in contrast with the concept of demand. Both, however, have their own strengths and weaknesses. The need concept is criticized as being too mechanical, as denying the autonomy and individuality of the human person, and as implying that the human being is a machine which "needs" fuel in the shape of food, engine dope in the shape of medicine, and spare parts provided by the surgeon.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Dope, Medicine, Individuality

  "The Concept of Need for Health Services". The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Volume 44, No. 4, Part 2, p. 202, 1967.

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• It is clear that the building of models is not a purely mechanical process but requires skill of a high order - not merely mathematical skill but a sensitivity to the relative importance of different factors and a critical, almost an artistic, faculty in the selection of behaviour equations which are reasonable, tentative hypotheses in explaining the behaviour of actual economies.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Order, Skills, Different

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, pp. 16-17, 1958.

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• [The loss-of-strength gradient is] the degree to which military and political power diminishes as we move a unit distance away from its home base.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Military, Distance, Moving

  "Conflict and Defense: A General Theory". Book by Kenneth E. Boulding, p. 245, 1962.

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• The greater the penalties laid on sellers in the black market... the higher the black market price.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Black, Penalties, Higher

  "A Note on the Theory of the Black Market" by Kenneth E. Boulding in "The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science", Volume 13, No. 1 (pp. 115-118), www.jstor.org. February 1947.

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• The controversy as to whether socialism is possible has been settled by the fact that it exists, and it is a fundamental axiom of my philosophy, at any rate, that anything that exists, is possible.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Philosophy, Fundamentals, Facts

  "Segments of the Economy, 1956, a Symposium". Case Institute of Technology publication, 1957.

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• [The question for the behavioral disciplines is simply] what is better, and how do we get there?

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Discipline

  "Humanity and Society", Association for Humanist Sociology US, Vol. 21, p. 56, 1997.

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• The concept of a value-free science is absurd.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Absurd, Concepts, Values

  "Economics As A Moral Science". American Economic Review, 59 (1), p. 4, March 1969.

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