Garrett Hardin
Garrett James Hardin was an American ecologist and microbiologist. He focused his career on the issue of human overpopulation, and is best known for his exposition of the tragedy of the commons in a 1968 paper of the same title in Science, which called attention to "the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment". He is also known for Hardin's First Law of Human Ecology: "We can never do merely one thing.
Trending & Selected Quotes
Trending topics shown first"Continuity is at the heart of conservatism : ecology serves that heart."
"A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future. By contrast, those who, for whatever reason, regard the resources at their disposal as an inhe…"
"Many of the environmentalists who moved into the environmental movement after Silent Spring ... detested pollution and craved purity. Absolute purity. They wanted to enforce zero tolerance on all envi…"
"Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming. Moreover, the practical recomm…"
"It is a mistake to think that we can control the breeding of mankind in the long run by an appeal to conscience."
"Our desire to conserve wildlife for our children and our children's children forces us to bring out into the open conservation's secret question : Does God give a prize for the maximum number of human…"
Works & Publications
No works or publications documented yet.
Timeline
1915
Born
Birth2003
Died
Death
Influenced By
Thinkers whose ideas shaped Garrett's philosophy
No known influences documented.
Influenced
Thinkers whose work was shaped by Garrett's ideas
No influenced thinkers documented yet.
Source Attribution
Information about Garrett Hardin is sourced from curated knowledge bases and cross-referenced for accuracy. Influence relationships are scored by thematic overlap and historical plausibility.
Related Thinkers
See all →Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Memory is a fascinating trickster. Words and images have enormous power and can easily displace actual expe…"
— Stephen Jay Gould"The one-sided funding creates one-sided images that reinforce the press defining as progress an examination…"
— Warren Farrell"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health, social and economic crisis. Historical comparisons…"
— Christian Laval"All of this is men’s genetic heritage. However, men’s genetic heritage is in conflict with their genetic fu…"
— Warren Farrell"But some of our moral behaviors, if not sentiments, almost certainly evolved. Evidence for that comes from …"
— Jerry Coyne"Beware of analogies: for millenia they corrupted medicine, and it may be their fault that today's pedagogic…"
— Primo Levi

