Jarret Hardin Lifeboat Ethics Summary

Garret Hardin effectively communicates his argument to the reader in Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against the Poor by providing a metaphor to appeal to the reader’s sense of emotion, providing logos, through the structure of the passage by including subtitles, and examples throughout the passage. Hardin begins the passage with a metaphor to make his statement on foreign aid. He uses the lifeboat as a representation of the wealthy countries, while incorporating the underprivileged countries swimming in the ocean in need to get on the boat. The author also used a metaphor to demonstrate that there is a limited spot on the boat, and how do these wealthy countries chose which swimmer can get a spot on the boat (Hardin 543). Hardin used this metaphor to enlighten the readers

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. This is an effective method because gives the reader an idea of what to expect when reading that part of the passage. In addition, it allows the reader to look for key reasoning when reading the section. “Adrift in a Moral Sea” is an example of one of the subtitle in the passage. With the subtitle, it gives the reader an idea of what the author will discuss in that section. In this section,