Hardin vs. Singer
Hardin versus Singer Rhetorical Strategies Picture living in a community where every minute of every day you were hungry, under-clothed, and afraid death because you are poor. A world in which child dies of hunger every 5 seconds. Now imagine waking up and your biggest problem was which sweater to wear with which jeans. Even though this seems hard to imagine, this life of poverty has been a reality for most people for ages. Before the1900s, few wealthy people would ever think about poverty. Two prominent authors were Garrett Hardin and Peter Singer, who wrote essays about human poverty. They questioned whether to confront the issue of poverty or to ignore it. The first essay is "Life Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor" from the ecologist, Hardin who served as Professor of Human Ecology, and psychology today (1974). The second essay, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," published in The New York Times Magazine is from the Philosopher Singer, who is currently teaching as as Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University (1999). Hardin's essay focuses primarily on the truth that we can either try to save everyone and die trying or save ourselves and let the flourishing live. He specifically discusses the different views on how to truly help the poor. Singer's essay, on the other hand, contains a much more practical discussion arguing that individuals should donate money to overseas aid organizations to help the impoverished. He applied ethics and approaches the dilemma of poverty. Although both writers address the poverty solution, and both include examples of ethos, pathos, and logos, the differing degrees of these rhetorical strategies renders Hardin's essay much more relatable than Singer's more emotional essay. First of all, the two authors establish ethos in different ways in order to gain the trust of their respective audiences. Hardin relies on a mixture of logic to get his argument across to his audience and provides vivid imagery to support
Cited: Hardin, Garret. "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor." psychology today. (1974) Print. Singer, Peter. "The Singer Solution to World Poverty." The New York Times Magazine. The New York Times Magazine. 05 Sept.1999. web. 10 Oct. 2012