Книга: Peter Singer «The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically»
Производитель: "Yale University Press" Peter Singer`s books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the `most good you can do.` Such a life requires an unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself. `The Most Good You Can Do` develops the challenges Singer has made, in the `New York Times` and `Washington Post`, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities... ISBN:978-0-300-18027-5 Издательство: "Yale University Press" (2015)
ISBN: 978-0-300-18027-5 |
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The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically | Peter Singer's books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a new movement in which his own ideas have played a… — Yale University Press, (формат: 150x220, 224 стр.) Подробнее... | бумажная книга | ||
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Peter Singer
Infobox Philosopher
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name = Peter Singer
birth = birth date and age|1946|7|6
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school_tradition = Analytic·
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Peter Albert David Singer (born
He has served, on two occasions, as chair of philosophy at
Outside academic circles, Singer is best known for his book "Animal Liberation", widely regarded as the touchstone of the
Life and career
Singer's parents were Viennese
After spending two years as a Radcliffe lecturer at
Animal Liberation
:"Main article:
In "Animal Liberation", Singer argues against what he calls
Applied ethics
His most comprehensive work, "
Among the more important human interests are those in avoiding pain, in developing one's abilities, in satisfying basic needs for food and shelter, in enjoying warm personal relationships, in being free to pursue one's projects without interference, "and many others". The fundamental interest that entitles a being to equal consideration is the capacity for "suffering and/or enjoyment or happiness". He holds that a being's interests should always be weighed according to that being's concrete properties. He favors a 'journey' model of life, which measures the wrongness of taking a life by the degree to which doing so frustrates a life journey's goals. The journey model is tolerant of some frustrated desire and explains why persons who have embarked on their journeys are not replaceable. Only a personal interest in continuing to live brings the journey model into play. This model also explains the priority that Singer attaches to "interests" over trivial desires and pleasures.
He requires the idea of an impartial standpoint from which to compare interests. He has wavered about whether the precise aim is the total amount of satisfied interests or the most satisfied interests among those beings who already exist prior to the decision one is making. The second edition of "Practical Ethics" disavows the first edition's suggestion that the total and prior-existence views should be combined. The second edition asserts that preference-satisfaction utilitarianism, incorporating the 'journey' model, applies without invoking the first edition's suggestion about the total view. But the details are fuzzy and Singer admits that he is "not entirely satisfied" with his treatment. ["Practical Ethics", p. xi]
Ethical conduct is justifiable by reasons that go beyond prudence to "something bigger than the individual," addressing a larger audience. Singer thinks this going-beyond identifies moral reasons as "somehow universal", specifically in the injunction to 'love thy neighbor as thyself', interpreted by him as demanding that one give the same weight to the interests of others as one gives to one's own interests. This universalizing step, which Singer traces from Kant to Hare, ["Practical Ethics", p. 11] is crucial and sets him apart from moral theorists from Hobbes to
"Practical Ethics" includes a chapter arguing for the redistribution of wealth to ameliorate absolute poverty (Chapter 8, "Rich and Poor"), and another making a case for resettlement of refugees on a large scale in industrialized countries (Chapter 9, "Insiders and Outsiders"). Although the natural, non-sentient environment has no intrinsic value for a utilitarian like Singer, environmental degradation is a profound threat to sentient life, and for this reason environmentalists are right to speak of wilderness as a `world heritage'. ["Practical Ethics", p. 269]
Abortion, euthanasia and infanticide
Consistent with his general ethical theory, Singer holds that the right to life is intrinsically tied to a being's capacity to hold preferences, which in turn is intrinsically tied to a being's capacity to feel pain and pleasure. In his view, the central argument against abortion is equivalent to the following logical
First premise: It is wrong to take innocent human life.
Second premise: From conception onwards, the embryo or fetus is innocent, human and alive.
Conclusion: It is wrong to take the life of the embryo or fetus. [ [http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1995----03.htm Abortion] 1995]
In his book "Rethinking Life and Death" Singer asserts that, if we take the premises at face value, the argument is deductively valid. Singer comments that those who do not generally think abortion is wrong attack the second premise, suggesting that the fetus becomes a 'human' or 'alive' at some point after conception; however, Singer remarks that human development is a gradual process, that it is nearly impossible to mark a particular moment in time as "the" moment at which human life begins.
Singer's argument for abortion differs from many other proponents of abortion; rather than attacking the second premise of the anti-abortion argument, Singer attacks the first premise, denying that it is wrong to take innocent human life:
[The argument that a fetus is not alive] is a resort to a convenient fiction that turns an evidently living being into one that legally is not alive. Instead of accepting such fictions, we should recognise that the fact that a being is human, and alive, does not in itself tell us whether it is wrong to take that being's life. ("Rethinking Life and Death" 105)
Singer states that arguments for or against abortion should be based on utilitarian calculation which weighs the preferences of a mother against the preferences of the fetus. A preference is anything sought to be obtained or avoided; all forms of benefit or harm caused to a being correspond directly with the satisfaction or frustration of one or more of its preferences. Since a capacity to experience suffering or satisfaction is a prerequisite to having any preferences at all, and a fetus (up to around 18 weeks) has no capacity to suffer or feel satisfaction, it is not possible for fetuses to hold any preferences at all. In a utilitarian calculation, there is nothing to weigh against a mother's preferences to have an abortion, therefore abortion is morally permissible.
Similar to his argument for abortion, Singer argues that infants similarly lack essential characteristics of personhood - "rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness" [ [http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1993----.htm Taking Life: Humans] 1993] - and therefore " [s] imply killing an infant is never equivalent to killing a person." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E2D91530F930A25753C1A96F958260&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss NY Times 1999] ] .
Singer classifies
Singer's book 'Rethinking Life and Death: The collapse of our Traditional Ethics' offers further examination of the ethical dilemmas concerning the advances of medicine. He covers the value of human life and quality of life ethics in addition to abortion and other controversial ethical dilemmas.
World poverty
In "
Other views
Zoophilia
In a ocial psychology Singer also works in the field of Evolutionary biology and liberal politics In " Vegetarianism In an article for the online publication Criticism Singer's positions have been challenged by many different groups concerned with what they see as an attack upon human dignity, from advocates for In Germany, his positions have been compared to Some commentators expressed their disapproval at the publication of Singer's review essay in which he discusses Proponents of other ethical systems like Singer has replied that many people judge him based on secondhand summaries and short quotations taken out of context, not his books or articles. [" [T] he aim of my argument is to elevate the status of animals rather than to lower the status of any humans" ("Practical Ethics", p. 77).] He is a favorite target of talk radio. Right wing commentators have naturally focused on Singer, such as a peculiar exchange between Glenn Beck and Ben Stein: [ [http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/9041/ Glenn Beck / Ben Stein interview] ] Singer experienced the complexities of some of these questions in his own life. Singer's mother had Meta-ethics and foundational issues Though Singer focuses more than many philosophers on applied ethical questions, he has also written in depth on foundational issues in An alternative line taken by Singer about the need for ethics [In, e.g., the last chapter of "Practical Ethics".] is that living the ethical life may be, on the whole, more satisfying than seeking only material gain. He invokes the hedonistic paradox, noting that those who pursue material gain seldom find the happiness they seek. Having a broader purpose in life may lead to more long-term happiness. On this account, impartial (self-sacrificing) behavior in particular matters may be motivated by self-interested considerations from a broader perspective. Singer has also implicitly argued that a watertight defense of utilitarianism is not crucial to his work. In " [http://www.fringer.org/wp-content/writings/famine.pdf Famine, Affluence, and Morality] ", he begins by saying that he would like to see how far a seemingly innocuous and widely endorsed principle can take us; the principle is that one is morally required to forgo a small pleasure to relieve someone else's immense pain. He then argues that this principle entails radical conclusions — for example, that affluent people are very immoral if they do not give up some luxury goods in order to donate the money for famine relief. If his reasoning is valid, he goes on to argue, either it is not very immoral to value small luxuries over saving many lives, or such affluent people are very immoral. As Singer argues in the same essay, regardless of the soundness of his fundamental defense of utilitarianism, his argument has value in that it exposes conflicts between many people's stated beliefs and their actions. Publications Singer is one of the most prolific writers in philosophy, sometimes publishing several books a year as well as public engagement. Some of his books include: and see ee also * Notes External links * [http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/ Peter Singer's homepage at Источник: Peter Singer::Stein: Dr. Peter Singer is a …::Beck: … nightmare …::Stein: … very strange guy. I don't know where he comes from. I cannot imagine what his formative aspects were.::Beck: You kind of wish that his mom would have harvested his body for organs before he was two.::Beck (then laughs and says he doesn't mean it.)
"If I have seen that from an ethical point of view I am just one person among the many in my society, and my interests are no more important, from the point of view of the whole, than the similar interests of others within my society, I am ready to see that, from a still larger point of view, my society is just one among other societies, and the interests of members of my society are no more important, from that larger perspective, than the similar interests of members of other societies… Taking the impartial element in ethical reasoning to its logical conclusion means, first, accepting that we ought to have equal concern for all human beings.
Singer elaborates that viewing oneself as equal to others in one's society and at the same time viewing one's society as fundamentally superior to other societies may cause an uncomfortable
*"Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals", New York Review/Random House, New York, 1975; Cape, London, 1976; Avon, New York, 1977; Paladin, London, 1977; Thorsons, London, 1983
*"What Should a Billionaire Give-and What Should You", The New York Times, 2006
*"Democracy and Disobedience", Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1973; Oxford University Press, New York, 1974; Gregg Revivals, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1994
*"Animal Rights and Human Obligations: An Anthology" (co-editor with Thomas Regan), Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1976. 2nd revised edition, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1989
*"Practical Ethics", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979; second edition, 1993. ISBN 0521229200 0521297206
*"Marx", Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1980; Hill & Wang, New York, 1980; reissued as "Marx: A Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press, 2000; also included in full in K. Thomas (ed.), "Great Political Thinkers: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Mill and Marx", Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992
*"Animal Factories" (co-author with James Mason), Crown, New York, 1980
*"The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1981; Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1981; New American Library, New York, 1982. ISBN 0192830384
*"Hegel", Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1982; reissued as "Hegel: A Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press, 2001; also included in full in German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997
*"Test-Tube Babies: a guide to moral questions, present techniques, and future possibilities" (co-edited with William Walters), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1982
*"The Reproduction Revolution: New Ways of Making Babies" (co-author with Deane Wells), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984. revised American edition, "Making Babies", Scribner's New York, 1985
*"Should the Baby Live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants" (co-author with Helga Kuhse), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985; Oxford University Press, New York, 1986; Gregg Revivals, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1994. ISBN 0192177451
*"In Defence of Animals" (ed.), Blackwells, Oxford, 1985; Harper & Row, New York, 1986. ISBN 0631138978
*"Ethical and Legal Issues in Guardianship Options for Intellectually Disadvantaged People" (co-author with Terry Carney), Human Rights Commission Monograph Series, no. 2, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1986
*"Applied Ethics" (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986
*Animal Liberation: A Graphic Guide (co-author with Lori Gruen), Camden Press, London, 1987
*"Embryo Experimentation" (co-editor with Helga Kuhse, Stephen Buckle, Karen Dawson and Pascal Kasimba), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990; paperback edition, updated, 1993
*"A Companion to Ethics" (ed.), Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1991; paperback edition, 1993
*"Save the Animals!" (Australian edition, co-author with Barbara Dover and Ingrid Newkirk), Collins Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, NSW, 1991
*"The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity" (co-editor with Paola Cavalieri), Fourth Estate, London, 1993; hardback, St Martin's Press, New York, 1994; paperback, St Martin's Press, New York, 1995
*"
*"Ethics" (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994
*"Individuals, Humans and Persons: Questions of Life and Death" (co-author with Helga Kuhse), Academia Verlag, Sankt Augustin, Germany, 1994
*"Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics", Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1994; St Martin's Press, New York, 1995. ISBN 0312118805 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995
*"The Greens" (co-author with Bob Brown), Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1996
*"The Allocation of Health Care Resources: An Ethical Evaluation of the "QALY" Approach" (co-author with John McKie, Jeff Richardson and Helga Kuhse), Ashgate/Dartmouth, Aldershot, 1998
*"A Companion to Bioethics" (co-editor with Helga Kuhse), Blackwell, Oxford, 1998
*"Ethics into Action: Henry Spira and the Animal Rights Movement", Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 1998; Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1999
* "Bioethics. An Anthology" (co-editor with Helga Kuhse), Blackwell, 1999/ Oxford, 2006
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*"Writings on an Ethical Life", Ecco, New York, 2000; Fourth Estate, London, 2001. ISBN 0060198389
*"Unsanctifying Human Life: Essays on Ethics" (edited by Helga Kuhse), Blackwell, Oxford, 2001
*"One World: The Ethics of Globalization", Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002; Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2002; 2nd edition, pb, Yale University Press, 2004; Oxford Longman, Hyderabad, 2004. ISBN 0300096860
*"Pushing Time Away: My Grandfather and the Tragedy of Jewish Vienna", Ecco Press, New York, 2003; HarperCollins Australia, Melbourne, 2003; Granta, London, 2004
*"The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics of George W. Bush", Dutton, New York, 2004; Granta, London, 2004; Text, Melbourne, 2004. ISBN 0525948139
*"How Ethical is Australia? An Examination of Australia's Record as a Global Citizen" (with Tom Gregg), Black Inc, Melbourne, 2004
*"The Moral of the Story: An Anthology of Ethics Through Literature" (co-edited with Renata Singer), Blackwell, Oxford, 2005
*"In Defense of Animals. The Second Wave" (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford, 2005
*"The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter", Rodale, New York, 2006 (co-author with Jim Mason); Text, Melbourne; Random House, London ISBN 157954889X
*"Eating" (co-authored with Jim Mason), Arrow, London, 2006
*"Stem Cell Research: the ethical issues". (co-edited by Lori Gruen, Laura Grabel, and Peter Singer. New York: Blackwells. 2007.
* "The Bioethics Reader: Editors' Choice". (co-editor with Ruth Chadwick, Helga Kuhse, Willem Landman and Udo Schüklenk). New York: Blackwells. 2007.
* Shaeler, J. (ed.). 2008. "Peter Singer Under Fire". Open Court Publishers.
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* [http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/31/description Peter Singer's monthly op/ed commentary series "The Ethics of Life"] for
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