Biology, its principles and implications

I consider Garrett Hardin to be one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. Generally, however, people still fail to understand the import of what he is saying. They assume that he is merely calling attention to problems that arise from the use of common resources. Various critics mistakenly assume that he advocates the brutal consequences caused by scarcity and overpopulation, that he supports the right of the wealthy nations to maintain a privileged way of life, that he champions private property and capitalism, that he lacks concern for human rights and freedoms, that human survival is the goal of moral life, or that Hitler-type coercion is a moral necessity. In their own unique ways, critics overlook the revolutionary character of Hardin's work both for the nature of ethics and for the method by which ethical claims are justified.