Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 1
13io,qraphicat Memoirs
VOLUME 69
OCR for page 2
so
OCR for page 3
KENNETH EWART BOULDING
January 18, 1910-March 18, 1993
BY NATHAN KEYFITZ
KENNETH EWART BOUEDIN~ECONOMIST, man of letters, ar-
clent peace activist macle his contribution to the hotly
of economic knowlecige with a combination of humanistic
values en c! technical proficiency. Reacting his papers, writ-
ten from the early 1940s to the 1990s, one sees a mastery
en c! creativity not only of economics but of all the social
sciences en c! ethics as well.
Boulding was born in Liverpool, England, on January IS,
~ 9 ~ O. en c! cliec! in BouIcler, Coloraclo, on March ~ 8, ~ 993.
Five years after taking a degree at Oxforc! with first-cIass
honors he left for the Uniter! States, where he spent the
rest of his life, first as a U.S. resident en c! then as a citizen.
Marriec! in 1941, he en c! his wife, Elise Bjorn-Hansen, were
together for the subsequent fifty-two years, in which they
saw five chilciren, John Russell, Mark David, Christine Ann,
Philip Daniel, en c! William Frederic, into the worIc! en c!
into professional life. I first met the young couple in 1946,
when Kenneth en c! I were teaching at McGill University in
Montreal and Elise was a student in my sociology class. We
have kept in touch ever since.
BouIcling was awarclec! honorary doctorates by over thirty
universities, he hac! prizes not only for economics but also
3
OCR for page 4
4
B I O G RA P H I C A L
EMOIRS
for political science, peace research, en c! scholarship in the
humanities. He was, in turn, president of the Society for
General Systems Research (1957-59), president of the Ameri-
can Economic Association (1968), president of the Interna-
tional Peace Research Society (1969-70), president of the
International Studies Association (1974-75), president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1979),
en c! president of the section on economics of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science (1982-83~. He
was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (electec!
in 1 975 ), the Institute of Medicine, en c! the American AcacI-
emy of Arts en c! Sciences.
He settler! first at the University of Michigan in 1949. In
1967 he mover! to the University of Coloraclo at BouIcler,
where he became clistinguishec! professor emeritus in 1980.
But there were many intervals of work en c! teaching else-
where in the course of those years. The list of places where
he visitec! for weeks or months is as long as the list of uni-
versities that gave him doctorates.
It is impossible to write a biography of Kenneth Boulding
without speaking of Elise. They colIaboratec! on many things,
but their strongest common interest aside from bringing
up their five chilciren was the peace movement.
Few names are mentioner! more often than the BouIclings
among the founders of the international peace research
movement that gainer! prominence in the 1960s. But Ken-
neth was also a founder of another movement that came to
prominence about that time systems analysis as a way of
unifying the sciences, natural en c! social. The search for
isomorphisms propositions of the same structure valic! in
two or more clisciplines was part of what animates! it, but
many other propositions have turned up as well. And what
may well be caller! a thirc! movement, evolutionary econom-
ics, that he wrote about nearly twenty years ago, became
OCR for page 5
KENNETH EWART BOULDING
5
prominent in the late 1980s en c! 1990s. While none of the
three movements has quite fulfills! the brilliant prospects
of its first youth, all have become a clurable part of the
academic en c! extra-acaclemic research scene.
Kenneth BouIcling was a judicious statesman of science.
He speaks of "economics imperialism," the attempt on the
part of economics to take over the other social sciences,
and, although his loyalty to his main profession was lifelong
en c! unchallengecI, still he clicin't like imperialism even here.
He was very conscious of the power of economics for cleal-
ing with economic problems, but he never tires! of pointing
out the large areas of life in which its techniques clo not
apply. He conic! be critical of features of the moclern woric!
that economics has brought into existence through the power
of its icleas, just as he conic! praise the political en c! other
dimensions of freedom that come with a free economy.
Kenneth BouIcling wouIc! have nothing to clo with the
iclea of a nonnormative social science. In the tradition of
the great economists of the nineteenth century, one that
has largely clisappearec! in the twentieth, he was not embar-
rassec! to say of American power,
Unless we "stand for" something in the world . . . that power will lose
legitimacy and will eventually disappear.2
But that floes not mean that he ceases! to be an economist
in dealing with values. Opposing a common ethical view
that freedom en c! justice are absolute, so that we cannot
permit any injustice whatever en c! certainly no infringement
on freedom, he spoke of an "ethical market":
[W]e have to ask ourselves how much justice are we willing to give up for
so much liberty.3
Crowds in revolution clo not think that way but in absolute
terms, they are not aware that without compromise the great
OCR for page 6
6
B I O G RA P H I C A L
EMOIRS
cianger is social clisorcler. What follows clisorcler is tyranny-
a dictatorship with neither liberty nor justice. A compro-
mise is not perfect, yet only compromise is workable.
Though a leacler in several major innovations, Bouicling
was no enthusiast for new fashions in social science just
because they are new:
One of the elements which easily may lead to a worsening of the decision-
making process at present is the increasing fashionableness of gaming . . .
[including] business gaming in the corporation. It can provide illusions of
certainty about the future which may turn out to be quite disastrous.... A
similar criticism can be levelled at techniques like the Delphi method.4
BouIcling hac! many loyal students, who owes! much to
the inspiration his lectures proviclecI. But the essential
Boulding is inimitable. Those sparkling insights that brighten
everything he wrote are not a methoclolo~v that can be
taught by a master en c! then learner! en c! practicer! by oth-
ers. One goes through some 3,000 densely packed pages in
the collected edition of his papers and finds little repeti-
tion en c! in nearly every page striking icleas. Yet BouIcling
hac! no ambition to construct a system, a scheme, or schecI-
ule that would have a slot for each iclea. Neither the profu-
sion of brilliant icleas nor the seeming clisorcler in which
they came forth was to the liking of those fellow profession-
als who want to standardize the field, to provide a package
of knowlecige en c! technique that all the qualifier! would
share en c! apply, to certify economists as competent to ap-
ply that package, so that they will be the physicians to the
OJ
economy.
That is not the only feature of Boulding that worried
some schools of economics. Another was his recognition,
especially from the 1970s onward, that growth meaning
increase of consumption without limit conic! not possibly
be the prime objective of society and the individuals in it.
OCR for page 7
KENNETH EWART BOULDING
7
[E]conomics has been incurably growth-oriented and addicted to every-
body growing richer, even at the cost of exhaustion of resources and pollu-
tion of the environment.5
In reacting through Bouicling's work one is astonishes! at
how far he anticipates! icleas that were reinvented years later
en c! that many social scientists have not yet tumbler! to.
Back in 1958 he took up ecological questions:
Are we to regard the world of nature simply as a storehouse to be robbed
for the immediate benefit of man? . . . Does man have any responsibility
for the preservation of a decent balance in nature, for the preservation of
rare species, or even for the indefinite continuance of his race?
An c! even in his early conventional years one detects a note
of irony in his couplet:
The wise economist is loath
To give up anything for growth.6
I cannot believe that BouIcling's sole objection to unlim-
itec! growth was the ability of the environment to stanc! it.
His creeper objection comes from other sources. Perhaps
the same source that macle Keynes say that once the eco-
nomic problem has been solver! for all classes the motives
(self-seeking, preoccupation with work en c! production that
achiever! this wouIc! be seen at their true value, as some-
thing to be ashamec! of.
The love of money as a possession as distinct from the love of money as a
means to the enjoyment and realities of life will be recognized for what it
is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological
propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in
mental disease.7
Keynes was optimist enough to believe that this would oc-
cur by itself en c! in this century. Bouicling, because he was
younger en c! liver! longer, saw further history unfoIc! in-
cluding numerous wars, persistent inequalities, injustice of
OCR for page 8
8
B I O G RA P H I C A L
EMOIRS
every kinc! that shower! too little tendency to diminish with
rising GDP, that macle such optimism more clifficult for
him. The best he conic! clo was to express a hope far short
of a forecast that we can learn
to fly the great engine of change BEAN A. ~] add ]
but to that great goal for which the world was made.8
that it Nor horror 1lc not to destruction
Yet with a different image his thought here is the same as
that of Keynes:
The spurt [of growth] from the 1930s to the 1960s bears some resemblance
to human adolescence, even to the production of a slightly pimply youth
culture.9
When Boulding discussed progress he distinguished its
measurable economic aspect, efficiency in the workplace:
a rise in the amount of any commodity that can be produced with one
man-hour of labor time.~°
With that definition there is no danger of confusing eco-
nomic progress with progress overall. We are toic! again
anct again throughout his work that as we learn to make
things faster we clo not necessarily move towarc! a more
satisfying life in a tolerable environment.
It is to be expecter! that one as rich in icleas as BouIcling
will be interpreted clifferently by reaclers of different gen-
erations en c! clifferently by professional economists en c! others.
What precedes is an attempt to portray his style of thinking
as seen by a nonsectarian social scientist of his own genera
tion.
NOTES
1. K. E. Boulding. Conpict and Defense: A General Theory. New York:
Harper, 1962. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1988, p.
. . .
Vlll.
2. K. E. Boulding. From Abundance to Scarcity: Implications for the
OCR for page 9
KENNETH EWART BOULDING
9
American Tradition. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1978.
Collected Papers, vol. VI, p. 525. Boulder, Colo.: Associated Univer-
sity Press, 1971.
3. K. E. Boulding. Prices and values: infinite value in a finite
world. In Value and Values in Evolution. New York: Gordon and Breach,
1979. Collected Works, vol. VI, p. 600.
4. K. E. Boulding. Social risk, political uncertainty, and the le-
gitimacy of private profit. In Risk and Regulated Firms, ed. R. H.
Howard, pp. 82-93. East Lansing: Michigan State University Gradu-
ate School of Business Administration, 1973.
5. K. E. Boulding. Toward a modest society: the end of growth
and grandeur. In Economic Perspectives of Boulding and Samuelson.
Durham, N.H.: Whittemore School of Business and Economics, Uni-
versity of New Hampshire, 1971. Collected Works, vol. VI, p. 85.
6. K. E. Boulding. Principles of Economic Policy, p. 21. Englewood
Cliffs, N.T.: Prentice-Hall, 1958.
7. T. M. Keynes. Essays in Persuasion, part V, 1931. Reprinted in
The Collected Writings, vol. IX. London: Macmillan, 1972.
8. K. E. Boulding. Conpict and Defense, p. 343. New York: Univer-
sity Press of America, 1988.
9. K. E. Boulding. Collected Papers, vol. VI, p. 87. Boulder, Colo.:
Associated University Press, 1971.
10. K. E. Boulding. Principles of Economic Policy, p. 21. Englewood
Cliffs, N.T.: Prentice-Hall, 1958.
OCR for page 10
0
B I O G RA P H I C A L
S E L E C T E D
EMOIRS
B I B L I O G RAP H Y
1941
Economic Analysis. New York: Harper & Row.
1945
The Economics of Peace. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
1950
A Reconstruction of Economics. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
1953
The Organizational Revolution: A Study in the Ethics of Economic Organi-
zation. New York: Harper.
1958
The Skills of the Economist. New York: Clarke Irwin.
Principles of Economic Policy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
1960
With W. A. Spivey et al. Linear Programming and the Theory of the Firm.
New York: Macmillan.
196
The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
1962
Social Justice. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Conpict and Defense: A General Theory. New York: Harper & Row.
1963
With E. Benoit, eds. Disarmament and the Economy. New York: Harper
& Row.
1964
The Meaning of the Twentieth Century: The Great Transition. New York:
Harper & Row.
OCR for page 11
KENNETH EWART BOULDING
1968
11
Environmental Quality in a GrowingEconomy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Press.
1970
Beyond Economics: Essays on Society, Religion, and Ethics. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
Economics as a Science. New York: McGraw-Hill.
1971
Economics of Pollution. New York: New York University Press.
Collected Papers. Boulder, Colo.: Associated University Press.
1973
The Economy of Love and Fear: A Preface to Grants Economics. Belmont,
Calif.: Wadsworth.
Peace and the War Industry. New Brunswick, N.J.: Dutton.
1976
Adam Smith as an Institutional Economist. Memphis: P. K. Seidman.
1977
With M. Kammen and M. Lipset. From Abundance to Scarcity: Implica-
tions for the American Tradition. Columbus: Ohio State University
Press.
1978
With T. F. Wilson, eds. Redistribution Through the Financial System:
The Grants Economics of Money and Credit. New York: Praeger.
1980
Beasts, Ballads and Bouldingisms. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transactions
Publishers.
198
Evolutionary Economics. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Ecodynamics: A New Theory of Societal Evolution. Beverly Hills, Calif.:
Sage Publications.
OCR for page 12
12
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1984
Economics of Human Betterment. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press.
1985
With others. Morality of the Market: Religious and Economic Perspectives.
Vancouver, Canada: Fraser Institute.
1986
Mending the World: Quaker Insights on the Social Order. Wallingford,
Pa.: Pendle Hill.
1992
Towards a New Economics: Critical Essays on Ecology, Distribution, and
Other Themes. Brookfield, Vt.: Edward Elgar.
1993
Structure of a Modern Economy: The United States, 1929-89. New York:
Macmillan Press Ltd. (Economists of the Twentieth Century Series.J
1994
Sonnets from Later Life. Wallingford, Pa.:
1995
Pendle Hill.
With E. Boulding. Future: Images and Processes Beverly Hills, Calif.
Sage Publications.
.
OCR for page 13
Representative terms from entire chapter:
ewart boulding
