Hardin, Garrett James, 1915-2003

Garrett Hardin was a professor of Human Ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, from 1946 to 1978. An author and lecturer concerned with the ethics of overpopulation and population control. He is best known for his essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons" (Science, 1968). He wrote on and publicly supported birth control and eugenics (including abortion and sterilization), conservation, ending of foreign aid, and restriction of immigration as solutions to overpopulation.

Biography / Administrative History

Garrett Hardin was a professor of Human Ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, from 1946 to 1978. An author and lecturer concerned with the ethics of overpopulation and population control, he is best known for his essay The Tragedy of the Commons (Science, 1968). He wrote on and publicly supported birth control and eugenics (including abortion and sterilization), conservation, ending of foreign aid, and restriction of immigration as solutions to overpopulation.

Hardin was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1915. He contracted polio at the age of four, leaving him dependent on crutches and, in his later years, wheelchair bound. Nonetheless, he excelled in swimming, and from an early age was recognized for his success in academics as well as theater and public speaking. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Chicago in 1936 and a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University in 1941. He worked at Stanford until 1946, when he left to take an assistant professor position at UCSB. He remained at UCSB until he retired with the title of professor emeritus in 1978. He continued to actively write at his home in Santa Barbara, authoring several new books and articles as well as revising existing titles. Hardin also remained active in the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Hardin's publications began with a textbook entitled Biology: Its Human Implications (1949-1978). His best known writings on overpopulation include: Nature and Man's Fate (1959), Population, Evolution and Birth Control (1964), and Managing the Commons (1977). Hardin also wrote about the ethics of birth control and abortion in books such as: Birth Control (1970), Exploring New Ethics for Survival (1972), Stalking the Wild Taboo (1973), Mandatory Motherhood: The True Meaning of "Right to Life" (1974), The Limits of Altruism (1977), and Promethean Ethics: Living with Death, Competition and Triage (1980). Other titles published after his retirement include Filters against Folly (1985), Living Within Limits (1993), The Immigration Dilemma (1995), and The Ostrich Factor (1999). At the time of his death Hardin was also working on two additional monographs: Saved by Reason and another unidentified monograph.

Garrett Hardin's many awards include the UCSB Faculty Research Lectureship (1968), the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award (1997) for outstanding scholarly work after retirement, and many honorary degrees. He was a visiting professor at many universities across the country, including the University of California Berkeley, Cornell University, and the University of Notre Dame.

Garrett Hardin died in September 2003 at age 88 in Santa Barbara, California.

The Garrett Hardin Society maintains a webpage with extensive information about Hardin, his life, career, and a bibliography of his writings. Go to: http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/