Famine Affluence And Morality Peter Singer Summary

With Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Peter Singer, a moral philosopher and professor at Princeton University, offers an alternative to the Western world’s current ethical situation: choosing to prioritize the life and suffering of others or choosing to prioritize luxuries and an overly comfortable life. Ultimately, Singer makes clear the idea that one should give as much as one can without expense to oneself if it will benefit others and that all men who are capable are obligated to do the same. Initially, Singer suggests that those in the Western world do not give more to the suffering due to proximity from themselves. In response, Singer offers the idea that distance should make no distinction between who does or does not deserve aid. Second, Singer proposes that the lack of aid for the suffering is due to scale; if others are capable of doing the same job as oneself (offering aid to the suffering), and there are many others who are capable, obligation does not necessarily fall on oneself to do a job. Singer suggests this idea is flawed because …show more content…
For example, many societies more often value male life over female life, such as in China where males are able to perpetuate the family name. It also does not consider that often we place more value in the lives of those who have ability or status, such as children or the wealthy. Very often, the elderly and disabled (both mentally and physically) are neglected. This ultimately means that people are less likely to give aid if the people in need do not appear to have much value. This is evident when you consider that there are more advertisements for starving African children than the depressed. The idea of scale also does not take into account that one may be less likely to desire to aid others if it does not affect them personally. This means that distance does play a large role regardless of how invalid the idea may