Seth's Analysis of "Lifeboat Ethics"

Seth Taylor
Prof. Spencer
HNRS Writing 150
7 November 2011
The Paddle

The current of ethics and morality creates a river of life that can capsize the conscience at any given moment, and to sift through these waters proves to be an egregious task. It is not very difficult to choose a side when discussing ethics and morality; the problem arises when one must establish the reasoning behind choosing a side. In his “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor,” Garrett Hardin effectively establishes his reasoning on the ethics behind not helping impoverished nations to a general audience through his appeal to logos, personal anecdote, and extended metaphor.

Hardin's appeal to logos is scattered throughout the essay; However, he ties his logical argument together in his last paragraph when he says, “For the foreseeable future, our survival demands that we govern our actions by the ethics of a lifeboat, harsh though they may be. Posterity will be satisfied with nothing less” (Hardin 316). This is an appeal to logos, because he is trying to get his general audience to logically consider what they have to do to ensure future generations. He bases his entire argument on our duty to our posterity, to give them a world similar or better to that in which we live in. Hardin delivers hard statistics of growing populations in impoverished nations to show how, logically, we need to focus on pursuing our own national goals of maintaining a bright future, rather than allowing poorer nations to siphon resources from us, no matter how humanitarian it seems.

In addition to an appeal to logos, Hardin uses personal anecdote to back his reasoning further. When speaking of an experience in Hawaii, Hardin reflects:
“I had the ironic delight of hearing a speaker, who like most of his audience was of Japanese ancestry, ask how the country might practically and constitutionally close its doors to further immigration. One member of the audience countered 'How can we shut the doors now? We have many friends and relatives in Japan that we'd like to bring here some day […].' The Japanese-American speaker smiled sympathetically and answered: 'Yes, but we have children now, and someday we'll have grandchildren too. We can bring more people here from Japan only by giving away some of the land that we hope to pass on to our grandchildren some day. What right do we have to do that?'” (Hardin 315)
This anecdote backs Hardin's appeal to logos with the inclusion of sustaining a land for future generations. How is it more ethical to help impoverished nations, than to provide substance for your children or grandchildren? Hardin argues that it isn't. He shares this anecdote to emphasize to his general audience that sometimes people have to make a hard decision, to prevent harder decisions in the future. He argues that we must cherish our position being inside the lifeboat, rather than the swimmers begging for a way in.

The lifeboat is the extended metaphor Hardin uses throughout the essay. He says, “Suppose we decide to preserve our small safety factor and admit no more to the lifeboat. Our survival is then possible, although we shall have to be constantly on guard against boarding parties” (Hardin 309). The extended metaphor effectively backs Hardin's reasoning, through its ability to show his general audience that they are the ones in the lifeboat. No one in an impoverished nation is going to be reading this essay; therefore, by his audience being the passengers of the lifeboat, his argument becomes incredibly more effective. Once the metaphor is established and understood, he can present his argument: helping impoverished nations hinder our ability to ensure future stability. Hardin continually refers to the extended metaphor to periodically remind his general audience of their current circumstance; that he's on their side whether they believe they are on that side or not.

The current of ethics and morality continually push and pull from one side to the other; However, with ease Hardin effectively provides a paddle of logic, anecdote and metaphor to guide his general audience to his embankment.