Cosmopolitanism In Peter Singer's 'Examined Life'

Are human beings always selfish? The answer to that question varies on how it is asked. Philosophers Peter Singer, Kwame Appiah, and Slavoj Zizek give different answers, but they all have a similar theme behind them. In Peter Singers’ interview in “Examined Life”, he gives his thoughts on the ethical dilemmas he finds around the world and about people spending money and the justifications of eating other animals. Singer explains that people who have money, spend it on expensive things. Later on Singer asks how human beings justify eating another animal, and he says that there isn’t any real reason to justify eating something based off of the way it tastes. Towards the end of the interview Singer talks about the ethics of human beings and …show more content…
Kwame Appiah would agree with Singer on this as well. Appiah talks about the concepts of cosmopolitanism in his interview in “Examined Life.” He explains that cosmopolitanism begins with accepting that everyone is different and responsible for others. If people can accept one another and be responsible for what they do, then things can start changing for the better. Appiah brings up a German saying, “if you don’t want to be my brother, I will bash your head in,” and it sounds really extreme, but Appiah gives a counter saying, “ if you want to be my brother, you have to follow by my rules.” He goes on to explain that people are guided or follow the diversity of values. Toward the end of his interview, Appiah says that human beings have to learn from one another and use this knowledge to help others that are in need. When someone helps another person, it gives a meaning or purpose to do more. In Slavoj Zizek’s interview, he claims that there is a temptation in meaning. Zizek talks about nature and finds it problematic. He considers it to be multiple catastrophes that happen to benefit the human race. Zizek explains that it is easy to forget that nature is a part of human growth, and brings up a paradox. He believes human beings live in a constant danger of their everyday lives, but they do not acknowledge that anything is going on until it is too late. To end his interview Zizek asks what love is or what it means to …show more content…
Zizek and Singer have similarities in their interviews. Singers talks on morals and a person's obligation to things are similar to Zizeks talks on selfishness. Both of them talk about human beings seeing something wrong in the world, but not doing anything to change it for the better. Appiah and Singer are also similar in their topics. If people were to be responsible of others, then the world talked about from singer would have less of a chance of coming true. Obligations are a big thing in society and are needed in the world to keep it from becoming worse. Appiah and Zizek are contradicting in their topics. Zizeks views on human beings as selfish are different from Appiah and his views on human beings need to be responsible for each