Updated 1 December, 2003
Garrett James Hardin
Curriculum Vitae
1915 - 2003
Education
1936 University of Chicago - B.S. Zoology
1941 Stanford University - Ph.D. Microbiology
Accomplishment Summary
Trained as an ecologist and microbiologist, Garrett Hardin is best known for his 1968 essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, Science, 162, now reprinted in over 100 anthologies and widely accepted as a fundamental contribution to ecology, population theory, economics and political science. The application of this essay to the problems of foreign aid and immigration was captured in his 1974 essay Living on a Lifeboat, BioScience, 24(10), and more recently elucidated in The Tragedy of the Unmanaged Commons, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 9(5), 1994.
A common thread throughout his work is an interest in bioethics. Dr. Hardin views bioethics as more than just ethics applied to biological problems. He refers to "toughlove ethics" built on a biological foundation. Essential elements of such ethics are relative quantities, feedback processes, and the changes that time brings forth as unforeseen consequences of actions taken. In his book Filters Against Folly, 1985, he argues that ethical theory, to be useful, must employ three intellectual filters: literacy, concerned with the correct use of words, whether written or spoken; numeracy, involving the appreciation of quantities; and ecolacy, the study of relationships over time.
As a Professor of Human Ecology at the University of California for more than thirty years, Dr. Hardin publicly debated the issues of abortion, population control, foreign aid, nuclear power and immigration. He retired from the Santa Barbara campus in 1978, devoting himself to writing and speaking. His 1993 Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics and Population Taboos, Oxford University Press, received the Award in Science by the honor fraternity Phi Beta Kappa.
Dr. Hardin's most recent books include The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons, Federation for American Immigration Reform (1995), Stalking the Wild Taboo, The Social Contract Press (1996), and The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia, Oxford University Press (1999). Dr. Hardin was awarded the 1997 Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award, each year honoring one retired member of the nine-campus University of California system for continued scholarly productivity.
Dr. Hardin has published over 350 articles and 27 books. Over 700,000 copies of his books have been sold.
Awards, Honors & Milestones
1930 Grand Prize, Chicago Daily News Essay Contest (Age 15; Essay on Edison)
1932 University of Chicago, Scholarship
1932 Chicago College of Music; Scholarship in Dramatic Arts
1942-46 Staff Member, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Division of Plant Biology, Stanford, California
1946-78 Ascending faculty positions in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
1952-53 Ford Fellow, California Institute of Technology
1963 Became Professor of Human Ecology, University of California, Santa Barbara
1964 Visiting Professor, UC, Berkeley
1964 Remson Bird Lecturer, Occidental College
1966 Faculty Research Lecture, UCSB (All-campus honor)
1968 "The Tragedy of the Commons", Science 162:1243-1247
1970 Visiting Professor, University of Chicago
1970 Nieuwland Lecturer, University of Notre Dame
1970-71 National Visiting Lecturer, Phi Beta Kappa
1972 Messenger Lecturer, Cornell University
1972-73 National Lecturer, Cornell University
1972-73 National Lecturer, Sigma Xi
1973 Environmental Hall of Fame Award, Friends of the Earth ("The single author who had the most different titles mentioned by voters")
1973 Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1974 Elected Member, American Philosophical Society
1974 Aquinas Foundation Lecture, Drew University
1974 Tracy I. Storer Lecturer, UC, Davis
1975 Elected Honorary Member, National Association of Biology Teachers
1975 Honorary Doctor of Humanities, University of Puget Sound
1975-76 Member, Advisory Committee on Ethical and Human Value Implications of Science and Technology; National Endowment for the Humanities & National Science Foundation
1976 Patten Foundation Lecturer, Indiana University
1977 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Northland College
1978 The Institute for Scientific Information announced that Hardin's 1968 essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" was "one of the most cited items in its field" in the Social Science Citation Index and the Science Citation Index
1978 Became Emeritus Professor of Human Ecology, UCSB
1978 Lecturer, Dartmouth College (Chosen by students)
1979 Jesse and John Danz Lecturer, University of Washington
1979 Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman of the Environmental Fund, Washington, D.C.
1970's and 1980's Chairman and then Honorary Chairman of Population-Environment Balance
1980 Margaret Sanger Award, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
1986 Distinguished Service Award, American Institute of Biological Sciences
1987 Mack Lipkin Lecturer, American Museum (N.Y.)
1989 Humanist Distinguished Services Award, American Humanist Association
1990 Award, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
1990 Population-Environment Balance Carrying Capacity award
1990 Honored by day-long symposium by the American Institute of Biological Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution on the occasion of this 75th birthday. Proceedings published as Festschrift in Population and Environment, vol. 3
1991 Inaugural Lecturer, Cook-DeWitt Center, Grand Valley State University, Michigan
1992 The Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, June meeting symposium on "The Tragedy of the Commons: A Retrospective"
1994 Phi Beta Kappa Annual Award in Science, for the book, Living Within Limits, Oxford University Press, 1993
1996 Revised edition of Stalking the Wild Taboo, The Social Contract Press
1997 Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award, honoring continuing scholarly productivity following retirement. Given to one faculty member each year from the 9 campuses. In its first decade, a first time award to a member of the Santa Barbara campus
1997 As of June, "The Tragedy of the Commons" had been reprinted over 100 times, in anthologies in the fields of biology, ecology, environmental sciences, law, economics, sociology, political sciences, philosophy, ethics and English composition
1997 Revised edition of Mandatory Motherhood: The True Meaning of "Right to Life", The Social Contract Press
1999 Revised edition of The Limits of Altruism: An Ecologist's View of Survival re-titled Creative Altruism: An Ecologist Questions Motives, The Social Contract Press
1999 Publication of The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia, Oxford University Press
