Lifeboat

I presented my 11-year-old daughter with the dilemma of 5 people on a lifeboat from last week’s unit. According to Lilli, “Four of them should throw one off of the boat.” I then asked her why and what determines who is thrown overboard. She replied that the four strongest should throw the weakest overboard because they have the best chance. She said it is survival of the fittest. I then inserted our 5-member family into the scenario, of which she is the smallest. She still insisted she should be thrown over as the weakest. When asked why I shouldn’t voluntarily sacrifice myself for the benefit of my family. She replied, “the four strongest are needed to protect each other to give the group the best chance of survival.” I asked her what her…

In Garrett Hardin’s paper, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor,” Harden uses the analogy of a lifeboat being a nation. He intends to offer his opinion, while explaining why his theory, “Lifeboat Ethics,” is more accurate than a previous theory, “Spaceship Earth” (Hardin, 358). Throughout the paper he explains that by the rich supporting the poor, they are enabling the poor to continue in their destructive ways and to ultimately cause “environmental ruin” (Hardin, 366).…

In many of the world’s major religions, political systems, and moral foundations, resource sharing is synonymous with the concepts of compassion and generosity. Many people would agree that we are morally obligated to abide by the Golden Rule and do for others as we would do for ourselves. Although many would agree that generosity and compassion through resource sharing is just, one question lingers- is it realistic? In his essay, “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor,” Garrett…

Help for someone people is second nature. Helping others no matter what the circumstances may be is just instinct for them. While for others help is something they approach more cautiously it’s something they choose to do if it does not negatively impact them in the process. Help is complex and confusing. Should it always be given to those who need it? Or should help only be offered if we can offer it without risking ourselves? For some the answer is clear we should all strive to help as many…

In the argument essay “Lifeboat ethics, the case against Aid that does harm”, Garrett Hardin presents his opinions on world population and world food. The article starts off with the analogy of the Earth as a spaceship, but then advances to the Earth as a lifeboat. The reason for the move away from the spaceship analogy and onto the lifeboat analogy, is that a true spaceship would have to be under the control of a Captain, and no Captain could possibly survive if his course were to be determined…

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover Should we help the poor? Individual nations are like lifeboats. Each with a distinct carrying capacity. If the number of passengers exceed this capacity, everyone drowns. In the story “Lifeboat Ethics” by Garrett Hardin, he believes the world would be better if we didn’t help the poor. If we help the poor, then what are we doing to ourselves? In the story “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, he believes we should help the poor. There are a few examples about how…

of the Commons” (1963). In the passage of “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor” which is written by Hardin, the main argument is about rich and poor countries. He states that rich countries should not help poor ones, so the rich countries do not have to share their resources with the poor countries. In addition, he illustrates in the passage that the rich countries are in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean and the poor ones in the water fighting for survival. Also, he said that…

“A Modest Proposal” V. “Lifeboat Ethics” Distributing limited resources among our rapidly growing economy has always been a cause for concern. There are new lives being brought into this world everyday even though our resources are dwindling down as we speak. In “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift and “Lifeboat Ethics” by Garrett Hardin, each author uses a different method of appeals to propose to their readers a way to help our ever growing population. Hardin uses more of a logic based…

(Intro) Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” and Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat ethics” are contradictory philosophical works that examine whether scarce resources should be shared with the poor. Singer’s argument is that “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad" (Singer, 1972); therefore all people become morally obligated to help the poor. While Hardin argues that ethics of a Lifeboat should be followed because there is a finite amount of resources …

Garret Hardin in his article “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor”, is attempting to show that we should not give money or resources to poor countries. Hardin recognizes that two-thirds of the world’s nations are poor and one-third of the nations are rich, with the U.S. being the richest. By recognizing this, he understands that there is some moral luck involved depending on if your rich or poor. However, he believes that giving to the poor is a destructive and terrible idea. He…