Garrett Hardin

Texts in Philosophy — very early 2017 additions

For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. All files are PDFs. William Bennett and Milton Friedman, Open Letters on the War on Drugs, from The Wall Street Journal (1989). Nathaniel Branden, “Self-Esteem in the Information Age” (1997). Max Forrester Eastman (1883-1969), excerpt from Reflections on the Failure of Socialism  (1955). […]

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Blamestorming and Environmental Problems (Part I) [Good Life series]

Some parts of the world really are environmental Hells. They are dirty and depleted, making them unhealthy and economically unsustainable. We can argue about the severity of various places’ problems, but I want to focus on another aspect of the debate: determining accurately the causes of the degradation so we can focus productively on finding

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Lifeboat ethics: how scarcity thinking sets us at each others’ throats [The Good Life series]

A scenario beloved of ethicists, public policy experts, and management consultants asks you to imagine yourself on a lifeboat. Built into such scenarios are powerful assumptions with life-or-death consequences, so as we work through the lifeboat scenario try to make those assumptions explicit. Here we go: You were flying over the Pacific, but bad weather

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Garrett Hardin on India’s 600 million population in 1974

Hardin is one of the most widely-read twentieth-century intellectuals, most known for his two pieces “The Tragedy of the Commons” and “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor.” The two are intimately related, as one diagnoses a fundamental problem with resources and the other draws policy conclusions. A key quotation, in which Hardin states

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A ética do bote salva-vidas, escassez e conflitos

Um cenário que é querido pelos eticistas, especialistas em políticas públicas e consultores em geral, pede que você se imagine em um bote salva-vidas. Nesses cenários estão inseridas suposições poderosas com implicações de vida ou morte, portanto, é interessante estuda-lo para compreendermos melhor do que se trata. Aqui vamos nós: Você estava sobrevoando o Oceano

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Tragedy of the Commons — transcript of video lecture

Below is the transcript. Or here in PDF. The lecture is part of the Business Ethics Cases series. Much thanks to Matheus Pacini for his excellent work on making the transcription. The Tragedy of the Commons (transcript) Video lecture by Stephen Hicks, Ph.D. Transcription by Matheus Pacini Part 1: What the Tragedy Is [Video clip

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Tragedy of the Commons [Business Ethics Cases series]

My video lecture, part of the Business Ethics Cases series. Contents: 1. What the tragedy is. 2. The free-market solution. 3. The socialist solution. 4. Comparing the two solutions. The entire video (43 minutes total): Supplements: * Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons”, Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. * Transcript of the above video lecture

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