Garrett Hardin

Immanuel, Kant - (1724-1804) Most influential philosopher in the history of Western philosophy. One of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment, he focused on rationalism and works of Francis Bacon. Kant wanted to structure ethics as consisting of a set of rules that one never shall break, he claimed that humanity has a dignity or worth that elevates humanity above all else in nature. In 1775, he wrote the “General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens,” a theory of the origins of the…

Introduction The healthcare debate is ongoing, more so now than ever. At its core is a fundamental question: is healthcare a right or a privilege of the American people? A news article I read in the LA Times compared the experiences of a married couple, both of whom needed urgent care for a similar health problem. While they were traveling in England, the wife fell ill, and as a result she went to an English hospital. Her total healthcare bill was $37; all she had to pay for was the…

A society that is based on the pursuit of profit and capitalism makes cooperation extremely difficult in this situation. If everyone’s only motive is to make a profit then each person will be out for themselves. Capitalism is based off of “winners” and “losers”. In order for there to be people with lots of money and are thriving then there must also be people who do not have much money and are struggling. People desire to be rich and success no matter the cost. Cooperation can be extremely…

philosophers such as Aristotle who have formulated moral theories like Virtue ethics. Not all of these theories are put in practice today but they do help in the solving of moral issues. One such experiment which has been brought about by the ecologist Garrett Hardin, is called Lifeboat Ethics. It presents the following situation which happens on a lifeboat after a shipwreck in the middle of the ocean: "So here we sit, say 50 people in our lifeboat. To be generous, let us assume it has room…

Pretty Place Going to Waste In Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor” he describes a sight that we all encounter sometimes daily. Hardin calls this the “tragedy of the commons”. The “tragedy of the commons”, is the idea that citizens are ruining aspects of the community that belong to everyone through their lack of care. This could be playgrounds, parks, historical sites, etc. Downtown Hot Springs fully embodies this concept. Downtown Hot Springs is home to murals…

few and the new people I allowed in could not trump relations with my Elementary friends. My life was in the same situation as Garrett Hardin’s metaphorical situation. “Since the boat has an unused excess capacity of 10 more passengers, we could admit just 10 more to it. But which 10 do we let in? How do we choose? Do we pick the best 10 ‘first come first served’?” (Hardin) I did not know who to choose or how to choose them. I let life take its course and eventually, the right people came along…

Garrett Hardin in his essay “Tragedy of the Commons” discusses the elimination of natural resources through the actions people take without consideration to the environment. Most people want the resources only to themselves, not allowing others to establish a stable form of living neglecting nature’s natural intent for interdependence. Earth’s natural resources are often taken for granted but their limitations are commonly overlooked by those who only seek to benefit themselves. We as a society…

The resurgence of Malthusian thesis is still very common, but errors in demographic predictions are numerous and serious. It is often overestimated the importance of technological innovation, associated precisely with the population growth. In reality, there are finite resources. The market and intelligence - the ultimate resources - empower several solutions. “I think my position is an ethical position. The truth is that if we do not reduce the population and consumption, then there is an…

The tragedy of common is the theory of Garrett Hardin where it is the acting of an individual person independently for his own interest and depletes the resources of common in a particular area of land. For example if an acre of community of forest which can hold forty cows are been shared within households of four with ten cows each, and if one of them add one more cow in the same given area of pasture for his own benefit to generate extra income, so does the others too but the pasture can’t…