Have you read Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons"?

[HamdenRice]

Just curious because it was cited in another post in an article that seemed not to grasp what Hardin's original essay had been about. Hardin's essay, which originally appeared in "Science," in 1968, is considered to be one of the most important articles ever written in the environmental field. It certainly got a debate going, and probably helped provide some of the intellectual backing for environmental legislation.

On the other hand, pretty soon after the essay was published, flaws in its deductive argument began to be pointed out.

Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economics recently for her work which is largely a refutation or at least substantial modification of Hardin's original thesis.

Regardless of whether you agree with Hardin or with Ostrom, it seems important to at least understand what Hardin said, and the methodology he used.

And no fair googling the article and reporting back that you read it. The subject line question should be, "had you read Hardin's essay before you clicked on this thread?"

[Nihil]

1. I voted "Yes" because I did, years ago ...

... but I could really have done with a "Yes but I need to read it again" option
as that's more accurate ...

:shrug:

[HamdenRice]

2. Good point. Too late to edit. nt