Peter Singer Famine Summary

In the article, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, by Peter Singer, he argues that affluent people are morally obligated to donate more resources to humanitarian causes. Singer demonstrates a view of ethics through the moral obligation to help someone. If, for example, a child is drowning in a pool of water, then you yourself are morally obligated to save said child. This thought we all have is that we should help everyone in need because it is morally right. While helping the child is the right thing to do, there are many things that could make the situation much worse than it currently is. When looking at the situation from a logical point of view, there are a few variables that can be pointed out. For example, what if you do not know how to …show more content…
Moreover, the proximity of an action is only irrelevant in the practicality of intervening and acting, the moral obligation is arguably no different. Singer was not, however overly opinionated in his approach to giving aid to the world’s needy. He advanced both a strong and moderate version of his arguments to appeal to those who would struggle to live according to the strong version. In the strong model, it would require society to prevent bad events from happening unless in doing so people would be sacrificing something of equal moral significance. Singer concedes that the strong version is somewhat impractical for the consumerist and capitalist nature of the world. Singer makes it clear throughout the text that the selfish nature and material focus of the world we live in today is based on the logic that society cannot provide the services for everyone in need on the other side of the globe when we must consider the people in need right at