ethics & morality · new to this edition
the lifeboat
fifty people in a boat built for sixty, and a hundred in the water. decide who comes aboard, then find out what the boat was meant to stand for.
In 1974 the ecologist Garrett Hardin, best known for “The Tragedy of the Commons”, published two essays arguing that rich countries should not share their food with poor ones or open their borders to them. His argument rested on a single picture: a lifeboat with a few empty seats, surrounded by people in the water. Four scenes put you in that boat, then in a real one, and then ask whether the picture fits the world it was drawn to describe. Answer each scene before you read on; the last one depends on the first.
further reading
- living on a lifeboat original paper
- lifeboat ethics wikipedia
- lifeboat earth (1975), reprinted in international ethics original paper
- united states v. holmes (1842) wikipedia
- demographic transition wikipedia