Preview

Garrett Hardin Lifeboat Ethics Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
533 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Garrett Hardin Lifeboat Ethics Summary
Garrett Hardin was a Professor of Ecology on the subjects of resource in western civilization. Dr. Hardin was born in the early 1900’s and lived until 2003. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology and a PHD in Microbiology, Dr. Hardin was known for his brutally honest thoughts on human overpopulation. Some of his writings were considered inhumane which made him widely be criticized. (Wikipedia.) In his article “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor,” using real world examples and lifeboat metaphor, Dr. Hardin strongly warned to developed countries that they must protect their resources and leave others to defend for themselves. He also stated that if we do not protect our resources, in the future, there will be nothing left because resources are not unlimited.
Dr. Hardin began his article with describing the world as a lifeboat. He claimed that it is not fair to share our lifeboat with other. He also said that the world’s resources cannot be distributed equally, and any attempts to equally distribute current resources will ruin them. Our lifeboat has its own limited capacity, but there are so many people want to get in and try to fit all will make the boat sink. We just leave them, and they will work out if they want to survive. This phenomenon he calls “The Tragedy of
…show more content…
By allowing more people in to the U.S, he says, we are overpopulating our own country and thus reducing our resources. That means we are directly sharing our resources to others. He says we need to close the doors now or it will be too late. Quantity is the issue, not bigotry or racism, and too many people in the lifeboat will simply cause it to capsize. He also mentions that justice is a craving that most people have. We prefer rules that are stable by the time and place, but our world simply does not work on that way, and it will harm our survived

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In college it is a common sight to see students crowding a room on the first day to try to get a spot in a class that is a requirement to graduate, but most of them already know they might not be able to get a spot in the class. This phenomenon is an example of the idea of “lifeboat” ethics. Garrett Hardin, the writer of Lifeboat Ethics, said in his writings “So we sit here, say fifty people in our life boat... let us assume that it has room for ten more… [we] see one hundred others swimming in the water outside, begging for admission in to our boat...” (Hardin 415). Hardin’s Lifeboat Ethics is about the concept that we’re on a boat and we’re trying to decide who will get on the lifeboat and survive. Though we are not in the open sea, our…

    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Decree Of 1830 Summary

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He says that Texas won’t grow any more if they just restrict more immigrants coming in. The reason is because if the same people live there they would die and who else would invent and change new things in Texas. Plus American citizens living in Mexico won’t be able to see the rest of their families ever again. Since the article 11 states that immigrants from other countries are restricted, this also includes America as well and those people can’t come to Texas to see their family. So as a result the 11th article in the decree was shot down for a short time, which helped American Citizens see their families.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Garrett Hardin’s essay, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor, Hardin describes the wealthy population of the world as being in a single lifeboat that is almost filled until buckling while the poor population of the world treads water below. Hardin’s essay gets his readers to feel the natural instinct to survive. The lifeboat metaphor that Hardin uses relieves the wealthy population of their moral obligations to the less fortunate, but in addition, puts all of the blame and cause of the depletion of earth’s resources on the poor. As much as his argument may make sense, there are some flaws in his way of thinking. Alan Durning, who noticed that major flaws with Hardin’s essay, wrote on what he thought about the topic that Hardin has brought to his attention. In Durning’s essay, Asking How Much Is Enough, he argues that it is not overpopulation that is depleting the earth’s resources, but overconsumption of the resources by the wealthy population. The arguments in Durning’s essay makes the reader realize that the way Hardin uses the metaphorical lifeboat to persuade his readers into thinking the same thing as he does and shows that Hardin wrongly places the blame of all of earth’s financial stability problems on the poorer population.…

    • 1468 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Garrett Hardin in his article «Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor» asserts, that despite the existence of a competent distribution of various resources between rich and poor countries, which is also called «lifeboats» for needy, there are pitfalls that could cause critical damage for the citizens of these countries and for the countries as a whole (Hardin, 1974). Hardin seeks to convey to readers that people should be clearly aware that all reserves have a certain limit, which one day might be consumed. Also, he shows on the example of of the term "tragedy of the commons" that if the limit is overloaded, then someone will have to pay for it at any cost (Hardin, 1974). Furthermore, one of the main objectives of Hardin in his…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. The film I chose from the list of Alfred Hitchcock films is titled “Lifeboat” and it was released on January 11th, 1944. They’re quite a few principle characters in this film, such as a women named Constance Porter who is a journalist and was filming the battle between a Allied ship and a U-boat. Another character is a man named John Kovac who is black gang oiler, then their is CJ Rittenhouse Jr. a wealthy man, also their is a man named Gus Schmidt who changed his last name to Smith due to the shame he has for his name, Gus’ leg was greatly damaged during the battle.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After reading the above reading by Mr. Hardin, I had come to the conclusion that in life there are many choices that must be made. In correlation to my Environmental Science class I can understand more of what his thought process is. In comparison, he could be talking about world hunger.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics” he explains that the world we live in is unequal and becoming increasingly poor. He tries to explain that if the poor isn’t controlled then the Earth will become overpopulated and unrestrained. I believe that Hardin’s writing of “Lifeboat Ethics” is effective and persuasive. His writing is persuasive because with every action to fix the poorness of our world he has a counter, Hardin uses numbers and percentages to show how the population increases of poor countries versus rich ones, and he also paints pictures in people’s heads very well.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Examining the title of Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor”, we could deduce the rich nations and or people are the lifeboats and the poor nations are the people adrift in the sea clamoring to get aboard. Each lifeboat has limited capacity. Complete generosity, justice and equality would equal complete catastrophe for all. Complete selfishness, unjust and discrimination would result in two outcomes: disaster for one group and survival for the other. As the World’s superpower, we should have the means to find a happy medium, and invoke it as regularly as possible.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In any case, Hardin prefers a different metaphor. Rich nations can be seen as lifeboats. The seas around them are filled with poor people who would like to get in the lifeboat or at least get a shae of the walth. Should we let them in?…

    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Hardin's " Tragedy of the Commons," and Diamonds, "The World as Polder: What Does it Mean to Us Today?," One can see how Hardin's main points relate to Diamonds, because both dissect the unsustainable aspects of our society. Both authors use different methods to get their point across, however their main points are very similar. Although Diamond closely looks at past societal collapses, and what aspects of their society caused their collapses, Hardin's current view of the modern worlds unsustainable population, has many characteristic to the older society's that Diamond discusses in his essay. For example Hardin look at our increasing population and how we are over indulging in our resources, that will soon run out if we're not careful. While on the other hand, Diamond describes how over population was a major reason for the Easter Islanders collapse.…

    • 200 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Life Boat Ethics

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The plane crashes on a deserted island near the Florida coast. The plane is equipped with two life rafts but one has burned completely and only one is working correctly. Only four people may get on board the life raft and live. There is a husband and wife expecting twins, a chemical engineer, a priest, a college student majoring in sociology, a police officer, a war vet, a historian, and a nursing student. Only four may live, the four I choose is the husband and wife, the police officer and the chemical engineer. ……..…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Garrett Hardin, biologist from Stanford, used the metaphor of Earth being a “spaceship” persuading other countries, industries and people to stop polluting and washing natural resources of the world. He illustrates that the “spaceship” is represented by the wealthy countries, and the natural resources are represented as the poorer countries of the world. The wealthy people of the world have all the resources they need to survive and more, while other hand the poorer countries are unfortunate. Their rations are broken up into smaller and smaller portions because of their growing population and it lessens the resources to everyone of that country. Hardin's argument is based on sharing. He proposes that the bigger countries should share what they have with the unfortunate countries of the world. He eventually reveals the meaning of his metaphors. The natural resources are exposed to be food. His argument is that there are so many countries in this world that are dying and suffering from lack of food. Hardin believes that if the wealthier countries share their “wealth then the weaker countries will have an opportunity to survive. Through the “lifeboat” metaphor, the use of logos, and the discovery of food bank, Hardin uses these key points as his argument.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He shares this by saying, “Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. This paragraph is saying that people are willing to do anything and go through anything just to get the freedom that they deserve, also that all people can go back home knowing that this will be over. This paragraph is supporting the central idea because it is saying that after this people will get the freedom they deserve and that everyone will finally be equal. Two devices that he used in this paragraph is diction and metaphor. The metaphor he uses is, “...quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.”The metaphor is comparing how bad this problem is to something more relatable like how police are beating them when they are doing stuff that isn’t even illegal like voting. He uses diction throughout the paragraph by using a unique word choice for most of his sentences like, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    But, listen above, it also does the opposite. But, maybe together we as a world can come together and work out better laws, maybe make conditions in other countries better so it doesn’t make people want to leave their homeland. There are so many people who have to grow up and live some of the best years of their life in a place that they are not happy in, or maybe they are just looking for more and know that they are better and can achieve more than what their country can supply to them. But, with that, immigration hurts America in some ways. But, an increasing population isn’t anything that can really hurt us. All it does is call for a bigger production rate of supplies for any average american house. But, that's what the immigrants are helping with, making those products. As one united country, let us come together and look at the brighter side of things. Look at other people's perspective. Make sure you are not just, forming opinions on what you may or may not think is right. Look deeper, look for other people…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reaction to Convocation

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages

    He is more of an idealist than a realist. He has an idea that if we all police ourselves and sign an arbitrary contract to uphold honesty and integrity, the world would be much better. This will NEVER happen. The fact is, we do police ourselves and make our own choices. It’s why we cheat in the first place. It’s what makes us human. It’s much easier to be apathetic and accept the world we live in, than to continuously be disappointed by people not living up to one’s lofty ideals.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays