Kenneth E. Boulding Quotes

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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.

    "The economics of knowledge and the knowledge of economics" by Kenneth E. Boulding in "American Economic Review" (pp. 1-13), May 16, 1966.
  • It is much more accurate to identify the factors of production as know-how (that is genetic information structure), energy, and materials, for, as we have seen, all processes of production involve the direction of energy by some know-how structure toward the selection, transportation, and transformation of materials into the product

  • Integrative power [is] the ultimate power

    Kenneth E. Boulding (1990). “Three Faces of Power”, p.109, SAGE
  • The discounting presumably is to be done for each period of time at that rate of interest which represents the alternative cost of employing capital in the occupation in question; that is, at the rate which the entrepreneur could obtain in other investments

    "The Theory of the Firm in the Last Ten Years". The American Economic Review, Volume 32, No. 4, p. 793, December 1942.
  • The world moves into the future as a result of decisions, not as a result of plans. Plans are significant only insofar as they affect decisions.

  • 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.

    "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, pp. 16-17, 1958.
  • Theories without facts may be barren, but facts without theories are meaningless.

    Kenneth E. Boulding (1941). “Economic Analysis”
  • 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.

    "The Concept of Need for Health Services". The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Volume 44, No. 4, Part 2, p. 202, 1967.
  • Humble, honest, ignorance is one of the finest flowers of the human spirit

  • The economy of the future might be called the "spaceman economy," in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything.

    Kenneth E. Boulding, Harold J. Barnett, Rene Dubos, Leonard J. Duhl, Ralph Turvey, Roland N. McKean, Allen V. Kneese, M. Mason Gaffney, Gilbert F. White, David Lowenthal, Norton E. Long, Jacob H. Beuscher (1966). “Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy”
  • The social system tends to be dominated by images... especially of the future, which act cybernetically, constantly guided by perceived divergences between the real and the ideal.

    "Collected Papers: Toward a general social science" (1974) by Kenneth Boulding (p. vii), as quoted in "Perspectives from the Boulding files" by Debora Hammond in "Systems Research", Vol. 12 No. 4, (pp. 281-290), 1995.
  • ... the fouling of the nest which has been typical of man's activity in the past on a local scale now seems to be extending to the whole world society.

    Kenneth E. Boulding, Harold J. Barnett, Rene Dubos, Leonard J. Duhl, Ralph Turvey, Roland N. McKean, Allen V. Kneese, M. Mason Gaffney, Gilbert F. White, David Lowenthal, Norton E. Long, Jacob H. Beuscher (1966). “Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy”
  • The organizer who creates roles, who creates the holes that will force the pegs to their shape, is a prime creator of personality itself. When we ask of a man, "What is he?" the answer is usually given in terms of his major role, job, or position in society; he is the place that he fills, a painter, a priest, a politician, a criminal.

    KENNETH E. BOULDING (1953). “THE ORGANIZATIONAL REVOLUTION”
  • [Even the mechanism can be endowed with an image. Thus] the thermostat has an image of the outside world in the shape of information regarding its temperature. It has also a value system in the sense of the ideal temperature at which it is set. Its behavior is directed towards the receipt of information which will bring its image and its value systems together.

    "Kenneth Ewart Boulding: 1910-1993. An Appreciation" by Robert A. Solo, Journal of Economic Issues Volume 28, No. 4, pp. 1187-1200, www.jstor.org. December 1994.
  • The human condition can almost be summed up in the observation that, whereas all experiences are of the past, all decisions are about the future. It is the great task of human knowledge to bridge this gap and to find those patterns in the past which can be projected into the future as realistic images.

    Foreword of "The image of the future" by Fred Polak, (p. V), 1972.
  • The process of consumption is the final act in the economic drama.

    "Innovation by Demand". Book by Andrew McMeekin, p. 131, 2002.
  • Deciding under uncertainty is bad enough, but deciding under an illusion of certainty is catastrophic.

  • 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.

    "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 19, 1958.
  • Private property is a means, and neither its abolition nor its unrestricted right should be an end in itself.

    "Principles of Economic Policy". Book by Kenneth E. Boulding, 1958.
  • Economists are like computers. They need to have facts punched into them.

  • Almost every organization... exhibits two faces a smiling face which it turns toward its members and a frowning face which it turns to the world outside.

    KENNETH E. BOULDING (1953). “THE ORGANIZATIONAL REVOLUTION”
  • We should always bear in mind that numbers represent a simplification of reality.

    Kenneth E. Boulding (1990). “Three Faces of Power”, p.96, SAGE
  • The most fundamental form of integrative power is the power of love.

    Kenneth E. Boulding (1990). “Three Faces of Power”, p.110, SAGE
  • [The question for the behavioral disciplines is simply] what is better, and how do we get there?

    "Humanity and Society", Association for Humanist Sociology US, Vol. 21, p. 56, 1997.
  • The use of isoquants to describe the production function did not develop to any great extent until the thirties.

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

    "Segments of the Economy, 1956, a Symposium". Case Institute of Technology publication, 1957.
  • Conflict may be defined as a situation of competition in which the parties are aware of the incompatibility of potential future positions, and in which each party wishes to occupy a position that is incompatible with the wishes of the other.

    "Conflict and defense: A general theory" by Kenneth Boulding, (p. 5), 1964.
  • It [knowledge] is clearly related to information, which we can now measure; and an economist especially is tempted to regard knowledge as a kind of capital structure, corresponding to information as an income flow. Knowledge, that is to say, is some kind of improbable structure or stock made up essentially of patterns - that is, improbable arrangements, and the more improbable the arrangements, we might suppose, the more knowledge there is.

    "Beyond Economics: Essays on Society, Religion, and Ethics" by Kenneth Boulding, University of Michigan Press, (p. 142), 1970.
  • It is almost as hard to define mathematics as it is to define economics, and one is tempted to fall back on the famous old definition attributed to Jacob Viner, "Economics is what economists do," and say that mathematics is what mathematicians do. A large part of mathematics deals with the formal relations of quantities or numbers.

    "Economics As a Science" by Kenneth E. Boulding, McGraw-Hill, (p. 97), 1988.
  • Nothing fails like success, because we do not learn anything from it. We only learn from failure, but we do not always learn the right things from failure. If there is a failure of expectations, that is, if the messages that we receive are not the same as those we expected, we can make three possible inferences.

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