Lifeboat

Tragedy of the Commons: An Interminable Paradox Essayist Garrett Hardin, in his paper, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor”, argues that human beings are involved in a slowly increasing state of world devastation as they continue to misuse the world’s resources and, consequently, refuse to provide the adequate resources in return for their plundering. Hardin’s purpose is to educate the intellectual public of this matter so that measures might be taken and unreasonable solutions…

make sure that every student achieves their goals. However, imagine if the lifeboat ethics metaphor was applied to college campuses, students that are underprivileged would be left out and only the privileged students would achieve their goals. Many students would like to attend classes, but due to lack of money or space available in the classrooms, they are left outside the lifeboat. In Garrett Hardin’s essay, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor”, Hardin argues that “a nation’s…

Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” Selfishness is exposed by Durning’s “Asking How Much Is Enough” In the short essay “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” Garrett Hardin argues that the planet faces the problem of overpopulation. He suggest nations should stop helping the poor before the overpopulation kills everyone. He advises the wealthy to protect their resources and leave those who cannot to fend for themselves. He describes the world as being…

address and solve these issues, there tends to be a divide on how to do so. There are many papers available concerning this problem. The two I find to have the strongest arguments are actually quite contradicting. First was Garret Hardin’s essay “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” where he argues that we should not aid the poor. On the other side, Peter Stinger makes a convincing case in his essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” arguing that it is our moral obligation to help…

pleasure and an absence of pain is the works of Bentham. Later on, Mills focused on Bentham’s original ideas and also attempted to improve them. In the excerpt, “Living on a Lifeboat” by Garrett Hardin, the ideas about helping global poverty and hunger in order to reduce suffering and pain are put to the test when a lifeboat metaphor is introduced. Depending on the situation, pleasure can vary in quantity and quality, and actions can be considered morally good when they promote general happiness…

“The Lifeboat” by Charlotte Rogan tells the story of a character named Grace which has just survived a shipwreck, and is now trying to find her way back to land in a lifeboat which is overcrowded with 39 other passengers that she comes to know. Grace reveals her story in first person, chronological order; from day to night of being on the lifeboat until becoming imprisoned for supposedly murdering a fellow character by throwing them overboard. This book questions morality and whether or not it…

States decided on was the placement of lifeboat regulations. After the British Board of Trade and the US Senate inquiries, it was decided that for every travel liner, there is to be enough lifeboats for every passenger aboard the vessel. When the Titanic set sail, she had on board twenty lifeboats. This accommodated for only one out of three people on the ship, and yet this number was legal according to British law which stated that the minimum number of lifeboats on a large passenger boat is…

self-interest rather than setting others’ needs ahead of oneself. Additionally, Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics,” further emphasizes that one must be self-content and not feel guilty about their fortunes. Using a metaphor of a lifeboat, Hardin describes a catastrophe in which a boat sinks and only fifty passengers fit on the lifeboat while the other one hundred drown. He ultimately claims that the more fortunate lifeboat riders should not “‘Get out and yield your place to others’” (Hardin 366)…

The definition of an ideal “good life” can vary from person to person based on their values, experiences and beliefs. Numerous individuals struggle with trying to search for what type of person one would have to be to live the good life well. Is it the person who donates every penny to charity? Is it the person who contributes to society through positive actions? Or is it the person who is concerned with their success? There are some that believe that living a good life is based on just one…

that is wealthy is not, and should not have to be feeding the many children that it does have. Garrett Hardin also brings up some of the same things in “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor.” Not only does Hardin let the fact be known that children are not getting fed, he wants the readers to think as if the world is on a lifeboat and could save a lot of people, but should the population let more in? Although…