The Subtle Influences of Hardin’s Article Exposed by Analyzing Singer’s Article

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The Subtle Influences of Hardin’s Article Exposed by Analyzing Singer’s Article Rhetoric has the power to manipulate people into believing that an act they would normally be against is actually not that bad. It has the ability to make people trust that cruel and inhumane actions are not as appalling as they once thought. However, it also persuades people into committing moral acts by providing a sense of guilt. Many writers use this writing tool today to convince people to agree with their stance on an issue. Garrett Hardin and Peter Singer are no exceptions. The growing gap between the rich and the poor is a continuing problem in the world today and the subject has caught the interest of both these writers. Each writer implements his own distinctive metaphor to help him express his view on the poverty situation. Garret Hardin, Professor of Human Ecology at the University of California, argues, with the help of a lifeboat metaphor that splits the countries into merely rich and poor, that wealthy nations need not provide aid to poor countries, since they will take advantage of the opportunity present to them and consequently diminish the rich states’ resources. However, Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, actually believes that Hardin is wrong in his claim and that people should spend less money buying unnecessary possessions and rather donate that money to charity. Singer also utilizes the support of a metaphor to strengthen his point, but his metaphor involves a man having to choose between the life of a child or his expensive car that will secure him financially in the future. Singer’s article unveils the manipulative techniques, mainly those that appeal to the emotional and reasoning sides of human beings, that Hardin establishes through the use of rhetoric, particularly his lifeboat metaphor, to express his viewpoint. Singer proposes a

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