The Contorical Analysis Of Garrett Hardin's Lifeboat Ethics

One thousand five hundred and three people died in the sinking of the Titanic, but was it avoidable? The behemoth of a ship was supposed to be unsinkable; however, due to the Captain’s negligence, the speed of the ship, and not listening to multiple warnings it was sunk. Miss Jessie Allis Mary Goodwin, a twelve year old girl, lost her life due to the tragic sinking of the Titanic. Unfortunately, she died because she was a third class passenger so she was sealed in by the watertight doors.

In the article “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor”, the author Garrett Hardin raised the question that whether the rich countries should help people suffer from poverty. He claimed that the supporting strategies for the developing countries, including the World Food Bank could result in more severe recourse inadequate issue and other disasters. In addition, a large number of immigrants flood in the US could ruin the natural environment and social balance. In that case, the author argued that regardless of the current situation, privileged nations should not provide aid to people trapped within difficulties of the underdeveloped nations. Even though, his

on its maiden voyage in 1912 the British ocean liner titanic sank after ramming an iceberg in the north atlantic ocean. the nearest ship the California did not get the SOS message because the radio operator had gone to bed and turned off his radio. the titanics captain Edward j smith knew that there were only enough lifeboats for half the 2100 people on board in the panic even those were not filled. seventeen year old jack Thayer from Philadelphia was not lucky enough to get into a lifeboat but as the titanic slid into the water, he dived from its deck into the ice waters coming upon an overturned lifeboat he hung on until the carpathian came to his rescue at dawn more than 1500 other people were not so

Garrett Hardin argues for a very harsh thesis: we simply should not provide aid to people in poor countries. His argument is consequentialist: he claims that the net result of doing so would be negative -- would in fact be courting large-scale disaster. One of the things that we will notice about Hardin's essay, however, is that whether he is right or wrong, he paints with a very broad brush. This makes it a good essay for the honing of your philosophical skills; you should notice that there are many places where the reasoning procees with less than total care.

In the essay Lifeboat Ethics by Garrett Hardin and the essay A Challenge to the Eco-Doomsters by Walter Benjamin, there are many things I agree and disagree with. Both essays make very good points with facts to back them up. But I can’t help but side with Hardin on his essay Lifeboat Ethics. In this essay I am going to compare and contrast some of the similarities and differences between Hardin and Benjamin’s essays about the aid the United States provides to poor nations all over the world by reducing pollution, controlling population growth, and the dependency of economical imports and exports.

This is the scenario of the Lifeboat Ethics in which Hardin relates this lifeboat to the space ship Earth. It goes that the lifeboat is the wealth nations and the people in the water are the poor or unfortunate. All ethic beliefs have flaws and strong points, as you will see in the following explanations. The 5 ethical theories have a one or two examples explaining how someone would go about making this decision from the view of: Divine Command Theory, Egoism, Utilitarianism, Kantian Ethics, and Natural Law. All five have ethic believes do justice, but have flaws, and strong point. An ethic theory to solve a problem is good. Following

The concept of compassion and generosity through resource sharing in essence establish themselves onto many of the world’s major religions, political systems, and moral foundations. Most would agree with the Golden Rule, “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” (Matthew 7:12) as a common moral adage suggests, or that “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:7). Although many would agree that compassion and generosity through resource sharing is just, is it realistic? Garrett Hardin in his essay “Lifeboat Ethics” argues that not only is resource sharing is unrealistic, but that it is also unfavorable since it stretches the few limited resources available to the point of ruin. He does this through rhetoric, or the use of logos, ethos, and pathos. In this essay, we will define logos, ethos, and pathos, analyze how Hardin’s uses these rhetorical appeals in his essay, and conclude how effective he was using these appeals to persuade his audience.

The movie Titanic, based on personal stories from the ship’s passengers, expresses the importance of safety precautions and the division of class as well as spreading awareness of the issue. The ship set sail in April of 1912 from Southampton in United Kingdom to New York City. When it sank, about 1,500 people died. Though the main characters in the movie were fictional, there were five characters that were based off of real people who were on the ship. Margaret Brown, Archibald Gracie, Captain Edward John Smith, Thomas Andrews and Joseph Bruce Ismay were those five. The captain of the ship was Edward John Smith, and his personal story is shown throughout the movie. Smiths’ attempts to save lives were not

The author begins by comparing the two metaphors of the earth that describe the allocation of resources between the poor and the rich people. In the spaceship metaphor, the earth is described as being enclosed and all of the people share resources equally with each other. On the other hand, in the lifeboat metaphor a lifeboat represents different countries, the wealthy people survive on the lifeboat, whilst the poor are in the ocean struggling to survive. Hardin goes on to say that the spaceship ethic is invalid since the earth has limited resources. Also the fact that it is very difficult to share resources equally amongst each other since poor people are more populated than rich people causing the number of limited resources to decline. In addition, he talks about immigration and how unchecked immigration can affect the environment because of overpopulation.

As individuals, we have different morals that can cause us to have a different opinion about things in life. Morals can be defined as having different beliefs when it comes to right and wrong. For instance, what one may consider unjust, another can consider the actions just. In the case of The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens,1884 it illustrates how individuals face different dilemmas that caused them to sacrifice a life for their well-being. I disagree with murdering the boy because I feel that people we should go right and do unto others, you will want them to do to you.

The text states, “ The Titanic designer, Thomas Andrews was pushing for 48 lifeboats which would have been enough to carry anyone on board. Ismay was footing the bill for the Titanic, and for whatever, he said no to the 48 lifeboats.” The text also states, “ Only twenty were placed on board. Because of his choice, it puts him under some obligation to stay aboard the ship and take whatever comes.” This shows how if the 48 lifeboats didn’t get footed, all 2,208 would have been able to make it out of the Titanic. When ships put in lifeboats, they need to insure that they would have enough to get everyone off the boat if something were to happen.

In Dr. Timothy Hinton’s philosophical article, Distributive Justice in the State of Nature: An Egalitarian View, Hinton argues that using an egalitarian mindset and his common ownership formula, society should be able to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves through the idea of equal ownership of the world’s natural resources (Hinton, 2012: 517). Hinton’s idea is important in the field of humanities and social science along with philosophy because it is a foundation for the ethical ideas in the economy that can affect all people within that society. Dr. Hinton uses ideas and provisos from Locke, Zonick, Grotius, Cohen, and Feser to form his argument for the common ownership formula. An example Hinton uses to prove his formula

Garrett Hardin wrote an essay titled “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor”. In this essay he spoke of the Earth being similar to a lifeboat in which it has limited capacity and resources. This is a fair assumption, as the Earth does have limited resources and carrying capacity. He mentions that we are “adrift in a moral sea” saying that in today’s world it is morally abhorrent to not help a person in need but that we should do what we have to in order to survive ourselves. Hardin mentions a “tragedy of the commons” he states that if a pasture were to become a commons it would only take one person to not show restraint to ruin the system and cause mass suffering. He uses the world’s air and water as an example claiming that they

Each person was given a life jacket but survival wasn’t very likely in -4 degree water temperature. As the ship sank lower into the water life boats were lowered with only half their holding compasity inside. One survivor remembered, “It soon became obvious to some of us that we weren’t going to be finding any safety in one of those life boats” (“The Sinking of the Titanic, 1912”).

“Although there was room on deck for twice as many lifeboats, the Titanic carried lifeboats for just over half of the passengers and crew on board. The designer of the Titanic had allowed room on deck for two rows of lifeboats, but one row was removed before the voyage began to make the deck more aesthetically pleasing [Rogers and others, 1998]. With outdated British Board of Trade regulations, the Titanic's twenty lifeboats actually exceeded requirements by 10 percent capacity [Refrigerator, 1998].”