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Garrett Hardin Lifeboat Ethics Essay

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In the essays “Lifeboat Ethics” by Garrett Hardin and “A Modest Proposal” by Johnathan Swift similar subject material is used. The essays both discuss what should be done with the poor. In “Lifeboat Ethics” Hardin discusses how poorer countries should not be assisted by the richer countries. In his essay Hardin is very cold, and logical with his approach. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” uses satire to help argue his points. In the essay he uses a fake speaker that proposes eating babies is a good idea. To examine the arguments to see which is better the Latin terms logos, pathos, and ethos will be used. Swift uses these three ideas more effectively then Hardin does to argue Essay. The essay’s logos aspects are both fairly strong. Hardin’s argument relies heavily on logic. In his essay Hardin uses a lifeboat as an analogy as to why not everyone on earth can be saved. Trying to fit everyone in a lifeboat won’t work if there are too many people. He applies this analogy to resource management. Resources can bot be equally shared because it will sink the boat. Hardin calls this idea the tragedy of the commons. One of his first arguments is that the rich countries cannot help these poor countries forever because they are growing at around three times the rate. Hardin sees Institutions like the world food bank to be a waste of resources. Rich countries will not be able to one day feed the faster growing poor populations. He also has issue with the world …show more content…

His essay is almost devoid of any emotion. It is a little forgivable since this was done on purpose. Lifeboat ethics are hard and emotion is only going to make it harder. It still makes his argument weaker by not using pathos effectively. Swift’s argument on the other hand shines brightest in this area. What could appeal more to emotion than children? The answer to the question is not very much could. So when Swift recommends to use babies as a food source everyone gets

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Hardin contends that in the event that we keep up the present pattern of help, individuals may leave a destroyed world for the accompanying eras. This leads the audiences’ to

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Swift shapes the text in a satiric way to portray to his audience his point of view on the topic at hand, and with the use of sarcasm Jonathan Swift mocks upper-class people who are affected by the overcrowding and poverty in Dublin. The usage of a satiric tone and sarcasm help Swift develop solutions to contemporary social problems that will work. In the “Modest Proposal”, written by Jonathan Swift, diction is a key rhetorical device in this piece, because of the way Swift portrays his thoughts through satire. Diction is the style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker by or a writer, Swift’s audience sees his diction as inhumane because of the way he proposes solutions to the world’s problems, such as in paragraph twenty one where he

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Swift makes extensive use of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos within the first eight paragraphs to create a strong initial argument that captures the audience’s attention and provide assurance that the information presented is viable. Swift starts with an appeal to Pathos by describing the state of Ireland: “the Streets, the Roads, and Cabin-Doors, crowded with Beggars of the female Sex, followed by three, four, or six Children, all in Rags, and importuning every Passenger for an Alms” (Swift, 1). The description of Ireland leaves a gloomy effect on the audience, as they are met with a somber tone set forth by a description on how thousands of people are affected by the poverty in Ireland. Swift continues this appeal to Pathos by describing the state of families within this poverty: “this prodigious number of Children, in the Arms, or on the Backs, or at the heels of their Mothers, and frequently of their Fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the Kingdom, a very great additional grievance” (Swift, 2). This description of the melancholy state of Ireland creates an emotional appeal because, the thought of having mass amounts of children being forced to cling to their Mothers and Fathers in a desperate struggle for survival, is a morose image.

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Garret Hardin and Walter Benjamin wrote essays called “Lifeboat Ethics” and “Challenge to the Eco-Doomsters. Both authers present different points of view when it comes to immigration, foriegn aid, and population. Hardin is opposed to immigration and compares the United States to a lifeboat that can only hold so many people before it sinks. He belives if we keep letting people in to the country we will overcrowded and everyone who is already here will be effected. He says the country is a “commons”, and can hold only so many people.

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Swift, as the author, clearly does not believe in this idea, and that is evident through the speakers word choice. He states, “I shall now humbly propose my own thoughts...” (59), before stating his preposterous idea. The word humble is so beyond ironic due to the level of insanity that the proposal

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Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a very interesting take on how the Irish government should cure the famine that the country was then facing. However, the entire proposal was completely bizarre, and the whole point of the essay was to bring attention to the idea that they needed a solution to the all the problems they were experiencing but the proposal was definitely not it. He even had a strongly developed plan as to how his proposal would work which makes the reader feel as if he is serious about selling children, eating them, and using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal was not his true goal. Jonathan Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the

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Rhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal Dr. Jonathan Swift places himself as a villain who is willing to do evil deeds to answer hard questions. What pushes Swift to write the essay “A Modest Proposal” is Ireland's economic and social problems. In this satirical essay Swift highlights the problems in Ireland and gives a sarcastic solution to make people feel guilt. Swift’s use of dehumanizing language is used to make the reader oppose Swift’s modest proposal.

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Hardin argues for a harsh thesis; privileged nations should not to provide aid for underdeveloped countries because he believes this

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When it came to Ethos, Swift was not quite as persuasive as he could have been. He does have a background when it comes to writing about corrupt governments in tales such as “Gulliver’s Travels.” The way Swift wrote this essay, however, makes it feel slightly less objective. Even when he is writing from the point of a wealthier Irishman, his overall tone shows a large amount of contempt towards the higher economic classes. Instead of allowing the readers to read alternative arguments on this subject, he focused strictly on his own opinion.

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He stated that “[c]omplete justice, complete catastrophe” (543). Hardin defines complete justice as being able to let everyone onto the boat, however, letting everyone on the boat will lead complete catastrophe, because if there are too many people on the boat, the wealthy would not have enough resources to distribute to everyone, resulting the boat will sink due to it exceeding capacity. This appeal to the reader reason of logic, because the reader has decided if it is reasonable to save everyone, knowing that it is not feasible. The author highlights the practical limitation of helping others. Another method that Hardin used to convey his reasoning is through the structure of his passage by including subtitles.

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Hardin explained his viewpoints stating facts about how defenders benefit from the food banks. The words that Hardin used in stating the facts where pretty good to make people believe him, but he used some emotional appeals throughout his article like ethos by including quantitative data such as 0.8

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For example, he creates an absurd, horrifying image of "a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout" (Swift 1201). In doing so, the well being of the wealthy class is mocked in a way that it seems ridiculous to demean a group of people to a subhuman form simply for the pleasure of the elite. By suggesting that the rich eat the poor babies, he is implying that they metaphorically devour the impoverished, thus attaining their success at the plight of the poor. From marriage to religion to commerce, the proposal goes into detail even with numeric values the vast improvement this solution would have on society and the future sustainability of the commonwealth.

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Swift uses his satire as a way to draw attention to daily conditions that many families in Ireland are suffering from. His extreme plan of eating children is used as a way to draw the attention of the government towards helping improve the economy. By using irony Swift is able to help make his plan a more believable solution to invoke change. Even today Swift 's plan can be seen as a persuasive technique, using logic and statistics to convince the

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In the article, Hardin dedicates a couple of sections to convey his concern about immigrants. He writes that the number of

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Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a very interesting take on how the Irish government should cure the famine that the country was then facing. However, the entire proposal was completely bizarre, and the whole point of the essay was to bring attention to the idea that they needed a solution to the all the problems they were experiencing but the proposal was definitely not it. He even had a strongly developed plan as to how his proposal would work which makes the reader feel as if he is serious about selling children, eating them, and/or using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal is not his true goal. Jonathon Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the Irish should sell their children to the rich to eat.

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