Thomas Schelling quotes
Thomas Schelling was an influential American economist and Nobel laureate, known for his pioneering work in game theory and strategic behavior. His research shaped important concepts in conflict resolution, nuclear strategy, and social dynamics. He made significant contributions to the understanding of how individual choices can lead to collective outcomes. Here are 8 of his quotes:
The next possessors of nuclear weapons may be Iran, North Korea, or possibly some terrorist bodies. Is there any hope that they will have absorbed the nearly universal inhibition against the use of nuclear weapons, or will at least be inhibited by the recognition that the taboo enjoys widespread acclaim?
Thomas Schelling
What this book is about is a kind of analysis that is characteristic of a large part of the social sciences, especially the more theoretical part. That kind of analysis explores the relation between the behavior of individuals who compromise some social aggregate, and the characteristics of the aggregate.These situations, in which people's behavior or people's choices depend on the behavior or choices of other people, are the ones that usually don't permit any simple summation or extrapolation of the aggregates. To make that connection we usually have to look at the system of interaction between individuals and their environment, that is, between individuals and other individuals or between individuals and the collectivity.
Thomas Schelling
The essence of these tactics is some voluntary but irreversible sacrifice of freedom of choice. They rest on the paradox that the power to constrain an adversary may depend on the power to bind oneself; that, in bargaining, weakness is often strength, freedom may be freedom to capitulate, and to burn bridges behind one may suffice to undo an opponent.
Thomas Schelling
Thomas Schelling
Photo:
Alvaro conde,
CC BY-SA 4.0
Occupation: American Economist
Born: April 14, 1921
Died: December 13, 2016
Quotes count: 8
Wikipedia: Thomas Schelling
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