Ethics in the Real World: 86 Brief Essays on Things that Matter

280 Pages·2016·1.82 MB·English

by  Peter Singer

Praise for Peter Singer and
The Most Good You Can Do
‘Peter Singer is a public intellectual par excellence; he takes complex
philosophical notions and relates them directly to the general reader without a
hint of loftiness or superiority.’
MONTHLY
‘Peter Singer’s status as a man of principles and towering intellect—a
philosopher extraordinaire, if you will—is unrivalled in Australia.’
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
‘Peter Singer may be the most controversial philosopher alive; he is certainly
among the most influential.’
NEW YORKER
‘Singer makes a strong case for a simple idea—that each of us has a tremendous
opportunity to help others with our abilities, time and money. The Most Good
You Can Do is an optimistic and compelling look at the positive impact that
giving can have on the world.’
BILL AND MELINDA GATES
‘The Most Good You Can Do is an important book. Reading it may change your
life and save someone else’s.’
AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
‘Forty years on from Animal Liberation, Peter Singer is still challenging our
complacency with his advocacy for new ideas and movements...In clear prose,
Singer weaves effective altruism into a timely and convincing ideology.’
BOOKS+PUBLISHING
Other books by Peter Singer Democracy and Disobedience Animal
Liberation
Practical Ethics
Marx
Animal Factories (with Jim Mason) The Expanding Circle
Hegel
The Reproduction Revolution (with Deane Wells) Should the Baby Live? (with Helga Kuhse) How Are We
to Live?
Rethinking Life and Death The Greens (with Bob Brown) Ethics into Action: Henry Spira and the Animal
Rights Movement A Darwinian Left
Writings on an Ethical Life Unsanctifying Human Life One World
Pushing Time Away
The President of Good and Evil How Ethical is Australia? (with Tom Gregg) The Ethics of What We Eat
(with Jim Mason) The Life You Can Save
The Most Good You Can Do
Peter Singer was born in Melbourne in 1946, and educated at the University of
Melbourne and the University of Oxford. He is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of
Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor, School of Historical
and Philosophical Studies, at the University of Melbourne.
An internationally renowned philosopher and acclaimed author, Peter Singer
was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in
2005.
He divides his time between New York City and Melbourne.
www.princeton.edu/~psinger

… CONTENTS …
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Big Questions
The Value of a Pale Blue Dot
Does Anything Matter?
Is There Moral Progress?
God and Suffering, Again
Godless Morality (with Marc Hauser)
Are We Ready for a “Morality Pill”? (with Agata Sagan)
The Quality of Mercy
Thinking about the Dead
Should This Be the Last Generation?
Philosophy on Top
We Must Nurture the Humanities
Animals
Europe’s Ethical Eggs
If Fish Could Scream
Cultural Bias against Whaling?
A Case for Veganism
Consider the Turkey: Thoughts for Thanksgiving
In Vitro Meat
Chimpanzees Are People, Too
The Cow Who . . .
Beyond the Ethic of the Sanctity of Life
The Real Abortion Tragedy
Treating (or Not) the Tiniest Babies
Pulling Back the Curtain on the Mercy Killing of Newborns
No Diseases for Old Men
When Doctors Kill
Choosing Death
The Tide Is Turning in Australia’s Euthanasia Debate
Bioethics and Public Health
The Human Genome and the Genetic Supermarket
The Year of the Clone?
Kidneys for Sale?
We Have a Moral Obligation to Donate Organs (with Julian Savulescu and
William Isdale)
The Many Crises of Health Care
Public Health versus Private Freedom?
Weigh More, Pay More
Should We Live to 1,000?
Population and the Pope
Sex and Gender
Should Adult Sibling Incest Be a Crime?
Homosexuality Is Not Immoral
Virtual Vices
A Private Affair?
How Much Should Sex Matter? (with Agata Sagan)
God and Woman in Iran
Doing Good
Australia Gives the World’s Poor Little More than Small Change
Holding Charities Accountable
Blatant Benevolence
Good Charity, Bad Charity
Heartwarming Causes Are Nice, but Let’s Give to Charity with Our Heads
The Ethical Cost of High-Price Art
Preventing Human Extinction (with Nick Beckstead and Matt Wage)
Happiness
Happiness, Money, and Giving It Away
Can We Increase Gross National Happiness?
The High Cost of Feeling Low
No Smile Limit
Happy, Nevertheless
Politics
Bentham’s Fallacies, Then and Now
The Founding Fathers’ Fiscal Crisis
Why Vote?
Free Speech, Muhammad, and the Holocaust
The Use and Abuse of Religious Freedom
An Honest Man?
Is Citizenship a Right?
The Spying Game
A Statue for Stalin?
Should We Honor Racists?
Global Governance
Escaping the Refugee Crisis
Is Open Diplomacy Possible?
The Ethics of Big Food
Fairness and Climate Change (with Teng Fei)
Will the Polluters Pay for Climate Change?
Why Are They Serving Meat at a Climate Change Conference? (with Frances
Kissling)
Dethroning King Coal
Paris and the Fate of the Earth