Singer is a promoter of effective altruism. He argues that people should not only try to reduce suffering, but reduce it in the most efficient manner possible. In particular, he develops some of the arguments made in his 1972 essay Famine, Affluence and Morality, in which he implies that citizens of rich nations are morally obligated to give at least some of their disposable salary to charities that help the global poor. He supports this by using an analogy about a drowning child, which declares that most people would rescue a drowning child from a pond, even if it meant that their expensive clothes were ruined, so we clearly value a human life more than the value of our material possessions. As a result, we should take a significant portion of the money that we spend on our possessions and instead donate it to charity. However, a point that Mr Singer made in his paper that the fact that if a person is physically near us, we shall be more likely to help them but it does not say that we ought to help them rather than someone who is further away. Admittedly, it is possible that we are in a better position to judge what needs to be done to help a person near us than one that is half way across the world. If this were the case it would be a reason to help those near us first. Many Australian’s would agree due to the fact that we still have so many cities within Australia which have children living on …show more content…
Hobbes believed that human beings always act out of perceived self-interest; that we invariably seek gratification and avoid harm. From Hobbes perspective morality consists of a set of rules such that if nearly everyone follows them then nearly everyone will flourish. These rules restrict our freedom but promote greater freedom and wellbeing. “More specifically the five social benefits of establishing and following moral rules accomplish the following; Keep society from falling, Reduce human suffering, Promote human flourishing, Resolve conflicts of interest in just and orderly ways, Assign praise and blame, reward and punishment and guilt (Pojman, L.