Peter Singer

Peter Singer was born in 1946, Melbourne, Australia, to an Austrian Jewish family that emigrated from Republic of austria to escape persecution by the Nazis. He studied law, history and philosophy at the Academy of Melbourne, and majored in philosophy. He afterward did a B.Phil at Oxford Academy, where he associated with a vegetarian educatee group and became a vegetarian himself. Around this time he wrote Animate being Liberation (1975), which has been called the "bible" of the animal liberation movement.1

In 1999, Singer was appointed as Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton. In 2004, he was recognized as the Australian Humanist of the Yr by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. He founded the non-profit organisation The Life Y'all Can Save, named afterward his book of the aforementioned name, and is often regarded as a core intellectual inspiration to the effective altruism movement.2 Vocalist is the most famous and influential contemporary utilitarian philosopher.

Vocalizer is best known for his views on animal ethics. In his book Animal Liberation he popularized the term speciesism, which he defines equally "a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of i's ain species and against those of members of other species".3 He argues for the equal consideration of human and non-human animal interests because animals take the capacity for suffering and enjoyment. He rejects the idea that non-human animals' interests should be considered less based on their intelligence with the statement from marginal cases: if we should consider the interests of infants, the cognitively disabled and the senile equally to the interests of the boilerplate human, we should also consider the interests of non-human animals every bit, for there is no relevant property these humans take that non-human animals lack. Consequently, Vocalizer has long advocated for reducing the suffering of farmed animals.

Singer has also campaigned confronting global poverty. In 1972, he wrote a widely-cited article titled Famine, Affluence and Morality in which he introduces the famous "drowning child" thought experiment.4 The principle underlying it is that if one can relieve a life sacrificing nothing of moral significance, i has an obligation to do so. The implication of this principle is that people in rich countries have an obligation to requite upwardly at least some of their income to help the poor, insofar equally it is possible. Vocaliser has also argued that affluent nations ought to take much stronger action on climate change, and has argued in favor of the legalization of abortion and the legality of euthanasia.5

In 2013, Peter Singer gave a TED talk on effective altruism. For a more than detailed and recent introduction to constructive altruism, see William MacAskill (2019). Effective Altruism. The Norton Introduction to Ethics, Elizabeth Harman & Alex Guerrero (eds.). Notation that Professor William MacAskill, coauthor of this website, is also a coauthor of this paper.

Cf. Singer, P. (2011). Practical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Printing.

Read about the theory backside utilitarianism:

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Representative Works of Peter Singer

  • Famine, Affluence and Morality (1972)

  • Animal Liberation (New York, 1975)

  • Practical Ethics (Cambridge, 1979)

  • The Life You Can Save (2009) (the revised 2019 edition is available for gratuitous download)

Resource on Peter Vocalist'south Life and Work

  • Peter Vocaliser'south website on his writings

  • Peter Singer Wikipedia article

Prominent Peter Singer Quotes

→ Collection of Peter Vocaliser's quotes on utilitarianism

  • "Living a minimally acceptable ethical life involves using a substantial office of our spare resources to make the earth a better place. Living a fully ethical life involves doing the most good we can." (The Most Good You Can Exercise, 2015, Preface)

  • "The only justifiable stopping place for the expansion of altruism is the point at which all whose welfare can exist affected past our deportment are included within the circle of altruism. This means that all beings with the capacity to feel pleasure or pain should be included; nosotros can improve their welfare by increasing their pleasures and diminishing their pains." (The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress, 1981)

  • "Racists violate the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of their own race when there is a clash between their interests and the interests of those of another race. Sexists violate the principle of equality by favoring the interests of their ain sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their ain species to override the greater interests of members of other species. The pattern is identical in each instance." (Animal Liberation, 2002, p. 9)

  • "When we buy new dress not to proceed ourselves warm but to look "well-dressed" nosotros are not providing for whatever of import demand. We would not be sacrificing annihilation pregnant if nosotros were to continue to wear our old apparel, and give the money to famine relief. Past doing and then, we would be preventing some other person from starving. It follows from what I accept said earlier that we ought to give money away, rather than spend it on dress which we practise not demand to go on united states of america warm. To practise and so is not charitable, or generous. Nor is it the kind of act which philosophers and theologians accept called "supererogatory" - an deed which information technology would be good to do, simply not wrong not to exercise. On the contrary, we ought to requite the money away, and it is wrong not to do so." (Famine, Affluence and Morality, 1972)