Motto:

(Attempts at) "Faith seeking understanding."

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Singer's "Famine, Affluence and Morality": Exposition and Appraisal



In his article "Famine, Affluence and Morality" Peter Singer gives a seemingly devastating critique of our ordinary ways of thinking about famine relief, charity, and morality in general. In spite of that very few people have accepted, or at any rate acted on, the conclusions he reaches. In light of these facts one might say of Singer's arguments, as Hume said of Berkeley's arguments for immaterialism, that "... they admit of no answer and produce no conviction."[1] While I do think that Singer's considerations show that people should do considerably more than most people actually do, they do not establish his conclusions in their full strength or generality. So his arguments admit of a partial answer, and once properly qualified may produce some conviction.

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