How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #1
A person is defined solely by the extent of his influence over other people, by the sphere of his interrelationships; and morality is an utterly meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fulfilling of one's function in the sociopolitical whole. (5.7)
This is how Dr. Haber understands the relationship between people and morality. You want to keep this in mind, because later in the novel he finds himself alone. If the only way a person has any worth is by their influence on other people, what happens to them when they are alone? Well, what happens to Dr. Haber is that he loses all sense of who he is. Maybe Dr. Haber should have found a different way to define himself?
Quote #2
He would stop her at any cost. He turned to her, ready for violence, his hands clenched. (5.53)
So here we realize that Dr. Haber will do anything he needs to in order to retain power. If it means killing a young lawyer, he's totally down with it. Well, that's one way to have influence over other people, we guess.
Quote #3
"Do you remember the Plague Years?" [...] "Yes, I do. [...] And my parents died that year. My wife the next year. My two sisters and their children after that. Everyone I knew." Haber spread out his hands. "Yes, I remember those years," he said heavily. (5.82)
George is asking Dr. Haber what he remembers about the plague years, and Haber responds with this quote. Notice that the doctor's entire family died, and he doesn't even shed a tear thinking about it. Why? Because he thinks that the death of everyone he knows is fine as long as it's for the greater good. What do you think about that? Is it right?
Quote #4
One hundred thousand souls. Evening was beginning to dim the quiet river, but the mountains stood immense and clear, remote, in the level sunlight of the heights.
"To a better world!" Dr. Haber said, raising his glass to his creation, and finished his whisky in a lingering, savoring swallow. (5.113)
Everyone who's creeped out, raise your hands. Sure, we understand grudgingly doing something that seems horrible for the greater good, but in this scene, Dr. Haber just seems like a monster. He has no regrets and in fact he's celebrating the deaths of billions of people. How would he feel if he had been one of those people? The thought doesn't even seem to cross his mind.
Quote #5
The scientific aspect of it all was in fact the only hopeful one, to his mind; it seemed to him that perhaps science might wring some good out of his peculiar and terrible gift, put it to some good ends, compensating a little for the enormous harm it had done. The murder of six billion nonexistent people. (6.6)
Here, George is trying to see the silver lining in the way he ends the overpopulation problem. Obviously, it's good that there is no more overpopulation and that people are able to get nourishment. But does the good outweigh the bad? Also, do you think that science has the ability to turn George's ability into something good for all mankind?
Quote #6
So that now he's using even his science as a means, not an end. ... But his ends are good, aren't they? He wants to improve life for humanity. Is that wrong? (6.10)
George says that Dr. Haber is using science as a means to an end and that his ends are good. But are they? What are Dr. Haber's ends? Do you think he even has any? More importantly, do the ends justify the means? This is often a thorny question in science, even when the lives of billions of people aren't at stake.
Quote #7
No factories spewed smoke, down by the river. No cars ran fouling the air with exhaust; what few there were, were steamers or battery-powered.
There were no songbirds any more, either. (6.46)
So they fixed the pollution problem, but now there are no songbirds. The world is technically better off, but is that all that matters? How does utilitarianism deal with things like art, culture, emotion, and the search for meaning? Sure, people have to have their basic needs met, but once that happens, then what?
Quote #8
Over the pillared portico, incised in white concrete in the straight Roman capitals whose proportions lend nobility to any phrase whatsoever, was the legend: THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER. (9.39)
This quote by Jeremy Bentham is basically utilitarianism boiled down to its basics. This guy believed that the values of pleasures, pains, and the greatest happiness could be calculated by using specific formulas. He also believed that the role of the government was to promote pleasures in its citizens and to help them avoid pain. Does this sound like a good idea? Why or why not? Are there things Bentham hasn't taken into account?
Quote #9
This society is tough-minded, and getting tougher yearly: the future will justify it. We need health. We simply have no room for the incurables, the gene-damaged who degrade the species; we have no time for wasted, useless suffering." He spoke with an enthusiasm that rang hollower than usual; Orr wondered how well, in fact, Haber liked this world he had indubitably made. (9.72)
For once, we get a peek under Dr. Haber's armor, and he actually seems a little remorseful about everything that is happening in his new ideal world. Do you think he really feels that the world he has made is the best one? Or do you think he's a little more insecure than that?
Quote #10
"What do you mean by that: 'the worse it gets'? Look here, George." Man to man. Reason will prevail. If only we sit down and talk things over.... "In the few weeks that we've worked together, this is what we've done. Eliminated overpopulation; restored the quality of urban life and the ecological balance of the planet. Eliminated cancer as a major killer." [...] Under HURAD direction, the reduction of human misery, physical and psychic, and the constant increase of valid individual self-expression, is an ongoing thing, a constant progress. Progress, George! We've made more progress in six weeks than humanity made in six hundred thousand years!" (9.114)
You could also say that in the few weeks since George and Dr. Haber have been together, they've killed 6 billion people, exterminated songbirds, and made it so that cancer is 100% lethal in infants. But you know, it's how you look at it, we guess. What do you think is Dr. Haber's definition of progress? And do you agree with the final sentence in this quote?