I understand the reasoning of the two philosophy graduate students and that we should help others in need despite not owing anything to them. I agree with this, but there is a certain extent when you have to consider your own wellbeing and see if it is being negatively affected by helping someone in need. So, if helping someone does not outweigh the possible negative impact on your wellbeing then it is most likely not worth it. I like the example, of the lifeboat that Garrett Hardin proposes because it argues possible problems that can occur when helping others. I like his outlook on helping people in need. In my eyes, you would rather save a majority of the people than suffer losing everybody.
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5 replies on “Lifeboat Reflection”
I agree with your opinion here. Charity is undoubtedly good and can always be seen as a positive way to impact society. But there comes a point in any individual’s life where it might benefit them more to hold onto their money instead of immediately redistributing the less fortunate. How are people supposed to save for retirement or make investments if they are living solely based on a subsistence level income? Unfortunately, as good as selfless charity is, sometimes people in a capitalist society need to think about themselves first.
Yeah I agree too. Charity is important but too much of it leads to pure justice. And in reality, pure justice leads to an “infinite regression to absurdity” (Hardin). Pure justice just won’t work in this type of society. It would ruin the lives for the future generations. It seems all benefitting and morally right at the time, but too much justice serves detriments and drawbacks later on in the future. And yes, in a capitalist society people need to think about them selves, or in other words, injustice needs to be served for it to work properly. But the question is where do we draw the line with injustice? It sounds cruel to say injustice is necessary but that is the world we live in and if it means so much then what should we do about it? Are we more for our country or more for our world? What actions need to be taken?
You make a good point about how in a capitalist society charity is an action that can only be performed conditionally to ensure a benefit for others that is a worthy use of the benefactor’s resources. One individual who was very interested in giving back to the American country was Alexander Carnegie. He decided that he wanted to use his vast wealth to provide education to a wide array of regions in America, he decided that increasing the opportunity for all that had the desire to use it was a significantly better way to spend his money than to just give it to individuals without any way of knowing how they will use it. America should learn from his success and generosities by providing assistance to individuals that are willing to work hard and contribute back to the communities that are assisting them, a way to enact this may be a required amount of community service for refugees who are provided with housing or some other way to provide assistance while ensuring the system is not being abused.
Yes, in a capitalist society people must think about themselves first before giving their goods out to others because there is no good in putting yourself in a situation where you may lose greatly even if someone gains. There is a silver lining to this, but you should always know and consider your life the most important because if there was no tomorrow or some purge was to happen then the lifestyle of survival the fittest kicks in and you are left to keep yourself alive. You hope that you will be thanked somehow and someway and that the saying “what goes around comes around” applies positively. I think the greater message is to know that you should help others and look out for people in need, but if your life is at risk then you should protect it at all costs.
Yes, you make a good point about the psychological aspects of helping others that are in need of it, and there are diffidently many aspects of helping someone out that must be considered. If its worth it to you, are you getting anything out of it, and what will the person do for themselves once you’ have helped them out. The last one is very important, an example being a bank giving out a lone to someone. The bank is not going to help someone out if they are not certain that they are going to be able to make their money back and pay the bank back with interest. The same ideology applies to the real world, you are not going to help someone out if you are just going to keep helping them. There has to be an aspect of learning on their part where they come to a place in life where they will no longer need anyone’s help.