lifeboat ethics essay pdf

Lifeboat Ethics

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Michael K. Potter 2

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Although the idea dates back at least as far as the eighteenth century, the term “lifeboat ethics” denotes a position first proposed by influential Texan ecologist Garrett Hardin (1915–2003), whose ethical perspective traces back to the tragedy of the commons. A paradox of rationality and virtue, the tragedy of the commons is what happens when a plethora of people, all acting out of short-term rational self-interest, degrade, destroy, or deplete a common resource – resulting in a consequence that is not in anyone’s long-term self-interest.

In two substantially identical essays published in 1974, Hardin used a lifeboat metaphor as an alternative to the then-popular metaphor of “spaceship earth.” The spaceship earth metaphor, he argued, makes sense only if all on the spaceship are under the control of one captain, for the notion of a spaceship that runs by committee, or through democratic elections, is senseless. The metaphor ignores salient features of the actual world in order to lend...

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Hardin G (1974a) Lifeboat ethics: the case against helping the poor. Psychology Today 8:38–43

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Hardin G (1974b) Living on a lifeboat. BioScience 24(10):561–568, Widely reprinted

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Hardin G (1968) The tragedy of the commons. Science 162(3859):1243–1248

Singer P (1979) Practical ethics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 158–181, Widely reprinted as a rejoinder to Hardin

Van Wyk RN (1988) Perspectives on world hunger and the extent of our positive duties. Public Affairs Quarterly 2(2):75–90

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Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

Michael K. Potter

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Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Deen K. Chatterjee

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Potter, M.K. (2011). Lifeboat Ethics. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_318

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Lifeboat Ethics: The Moral Dilemmas of World Hunger. Ed. by Lucas George R. and Ogletree Thomas. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. xiv + 162 pages. $8.95 (paper $4.95)

1977, Horizons

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Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor Essay (Article Review)

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Environmental and economic problems, associated with the rapid growth of the world’s population, scholars and thinkers are considering the possible models which allow eliminating the crisis at least partially. Garrett Hardin in her article entitled “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” presents a scholarly approach to the existing state-of-art in international relations and the ways the support of the poor countries enables the misuse of limited resources. The author argues that wealthier states should not provide financial and food aid to poor countries, neither should they let in huge numbers of immigrants from the developing world, as it will result in planet overpopulation and exhaustion of the main resources.

The author successfully defines most concepts and ideas she puts forth. First of all, the main idea of the lifeboat is explained at the very beginning of the paper: there is a limited number of people a boat can take aboard, so if viewing the situation from the Christian perspective and saving everyone, the rescuers are likely to swamp along with the rescued. Similarly, helping poor nations automatically means multiplying their populations, which will need increasingly more aid and make extensive use of exhaustible resources. The concept of the tragedy of commons is also described clearly, so one can understand from the article that if everyone has unlimited access to a certain resource, the common possession will soon disappear due to its misuse. The Chinese fish metaphor is also elucidated and effectively put into context: it is much more helpful to teach a person or a whole nation to provide for themselves instead of turning them into dependents. However, the spaceship argument the scholar seeks to repudiate is not defined clearly, so the reader can only suppose what the spaceship model is.

Although the author in general builds her argument logically and makes each link explicit, there are several unstated points the author probably believes are common knowledge. First of all, the author doesn’t note the threat of global warming as a serious environmental issue, close-knit with human economic activity. Because the human population is growing, economic activity is intensifying for the purpose of meeting the needs of this huge global community. At the same time, with the expansion of economic activity, air pollution becomes more evident, so the author relies on this fact stating that resources are vanishing quicker with population boosting. As it has been proven above, this assumption is logical and true.

However, there is one substantial fallacy in reasoning. The author implies that developing nations will remain dependent on the wealthy world for centuries and fail to learn to build their infrastructure from the inside. Therefore, the author underestimates the object of her criticism and approaches it as unable to gain new skills at the national level. In addition, the author is not fully objective, as she fails to provide the positive progress developing states are making in terms of self-regulation. For instance, in African countries and India, birth control campaigns have thirty-forty-year history, so it is important to understand that they are not mere consumers of the West’s food, but also independent and “intelligent” structures which are able to fix their internal problems with the support of the “civilized ” world.

It also needs to be noted that the author approaches immigration in a biased way and reduces it to mere recruiting of cheap workforce from poor countries. In fact, the issue is much more complex in the context of developed countries like the United States, which have to put so many resources in people arriving in the country, in order to ensure they adapt in the proper way and become true members of the wealthy nation, not the poor community. For the first years after moving abroad, such people really do non-qualified work, but the fact of their immigration proves that they seek success and finally obtain it by gaining additional education and making a career. Therefore, the evidence about immigration is not actually true.

Works cited

Hardin, G. “ Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor ”. 1974. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2021, October 4). Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lifeboat-ethics-article-by-garrett-hardin/

"Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor." IvyPanda , 4 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/lifeboat-ethics-article-by-garrett-hardin/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor'. 4 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor." October 4, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lifeboat-ethics-article-by-garrett-hardin/.

1. IvyPanda . "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor." October 4, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lifeboat-ethics-article-by-garrett-hardin/.

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IvyPanda . "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor." October 4, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lifeboat-ethics-article-by-garrett-hardin/.

Home / Essay Samples / Philosophy / Ethics / Response on Hardin’s Lifeboat Ethics and Singer’s Rich And Poor

Response on Hardin’s Lifeboat Ethics and Singer’s Rich And Poor

Category: Philosophy , Life
Topic: Ethics , Helping Others

Pages: 3 (1305 words)

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