His basic solution is that we must abandon the commons system in breeding (as we have already in food production and pollution – instances where we have used privatization and laws to achieve this). People must no longer be free to add unlimited numbers of offspring to the total load on the earth’s ecosystems.

Hardin believes freedom to breed is intolerable. Hardin says the commons is only justifiable under low population density. He believes that no technical solution can free us from overpopulation. Examples of a common resource include land, atmosphere.

What does Hardin mean that morality is “system sensitive”? Give an example. Hardin is saying that our society is used to a complex government and a very populated society, but it is a poor way of governing to force laws on people even if they don’t want the laws.

Yes, I agree with Adam smith when he says that decisions made individually will be the best for an entire society because if you forcing your opinion on someone there is no telling how they are going to take it and it could completely turn them off to the idea before they even understand it.

In Hardin’s classic piece “The Tragedy of the Commons,” a commons is a natural resource shared by many individuals. 1. In this context, “shared” means that each individual does not have a claim to any part of the resource, but rather, to the use of a portion of it for his/her own benefit.

Hardin used the word “tragedy” as Aristotle did, to refer to a dramatic outcome that is the inevitable but unplanned result of a character’s actions. He called the destruction of the commons through overuse a tragedy not because it is sad, but because it is the inevitable result of shared use of the pasture.

Mutual Coercion Mutually Agreed Upon. The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort. Consider bank-robbing. The man who takes money from a bank acts as if the bank were a commons.

mutually agreed upon Responsibility

Animal extinction: Overfishing and overhunting are examples of a common pool resource being depleted by individuals acting in their own self-interest. Depletion of natural resources: When common resources are consumed with an eye towards short-term gain, the result can be a tragedy of the commons.

prohibition is easy to

Why does Hardin think that technical solutions are always welcome? -Because of previous failure in prophecy.

Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit–in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

ARISTOTLE NAILED IT when he said, “What is common to the A greatest number gets the least amount of care.” He elaborated that people “pay most attention to what is their own; they care less for what is common.” One wonders whether the ancient teacher could have foreseen the day when his words would provide warning of …

“What is common to the greatest number gets the least amount of care. Men pay most attention to what is their own; they care less for what is common; or at any rate they care for it only to the extent to which each is individually concerned.

Garrett Hardin