Refuting Peter Singer S Ethical Theory

Krantz provides a defense of traditional, human-centered ethics against Peter Singer's ethical theory. Singer favors a Copernican revolution in ethics because he thinks our traditional ethics has collapsed under pressure from medical technology and from advances in the biological understanding of our fellow animals. For nearly thirty years he has argued that the boundaries of the human lifespan and of the human species are so unclear that we must abandon our views that human beings have a special dignity and that the taking of innocent human life is always wrong. Against this Krantz argues that in today's world, human life has been cheapened and the values of the marketplace have begun to govern medical care and organ donation, birth and death. In fact, this is just a foretaste of the world to come if Singer's ethical theory succeeds in replacing traditional human-centered ethics. What is required is, not the abandonment of human dignity and of the sanctity of human life, but rather a renewed understanding of how principles based on these ideas can be applied in the twenty-first century. Scholars, students, and general readers involved with ethical and contemporary philosophy issues will find this book interesting.

An argument for putting sentiment aside and maximizing the practical impact of our donated dollars: “Powerful, provocative” (Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times). Peter Singer’s books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a challenging new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profoundly unsettling idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the “most good you can do.” Such a life requires a rigorously unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how, paradoxically, living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself. Doing the Most Good develops the challenges Singer has made, in the New York Times and Washington Post, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities focused on helping our fellow citizens, rather than those for whom we can do the most good. Effective altruists are extending our knowledge of the possibilities of living less selfishly, and of allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. Doing the Most Good offers new hope for our ability to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

One of the leading ethical thinkers of the modern age, Peter Singer has repeatedly been embroiled in controversy. Protesters in Germany closed down his lectures, mistakenly thinking he was advocating Nazi views on eugenics. Conservative publisher Steve Forbes withdrew generous donations to Princeton after Singer was appointed professor of bioethics. His belief that infanticide is sometimes morally justified has appalled people from all walks of life. Peter Singer Under Fire gives a platform to his critics on many contentious issues. Leaders of the disability rights group Not Dead Yet attack Singer’s views on disability and euthanasia. Economists criticize the effectiveness of his ideas for solving global poverty. Philosophers expose problems in Singer’s theory of utilitarianism and ethicists refute his position on abortion. Singer’s engaging “Intellectual Autobiography” explains how he came by his controversial views, while detailed replies to each critic reveal further surprising aspects of his unique outlook.

This book explores a number of important issues to illuminate the common ground between Peter Singer and Christian ethics.

Peter Singer is not interested in moral reasoning for its own sake, but insofar as it guides action. This book examines the foundational principles and ideas that govern his moral philosophy assessing whether he achieves his aim of constructing practical ethics. Singer presents his ideas clearly and eloquently, but often they are inconsistent and even contradictory. The simplicity with which he puts them forward is commendable, but sometimes he reduces important issues to simple slogans. Many of Singer's ideas are highly controversial, but he shows sensitivity towards others; albeit within a utilitarian framework.Singer claimed that his revolution in ethics was to be on rational foundations; he wanted to make ethics as more scientific, and as with any practical science it must be based on theoretical foundations. To create this system, he uses a peculiar definition of rationality that is arbitrary and open to criticism. The limitations of Singer's theoretical foundations put into question the normative conclusions of his applied ethics.The metaethical writings that underpin his practical conclusions have had limited examination and commentary by professional philosophers. This study analyses his views in the light of utilitarian thought and the philosophical issues this ethical theory has needed to resolve as a moral system. In particular, there is a detailed discussion on Singer's arguments in favour of infanticide. (Nova)

Tests the views and metaphor of 19th-century utilitarian philosopher Henry Sidgwick against a variety of contemporary views on ethics, determining that they are defensible and thus providing a defense of objectivism in ethics and of hedonistic utilitarianism.

Most of us believe that there are limits to the sacrifices that morality can demand of us. We also think that certain types of acts are simply forbidden, even when necessary for promoting the overall good. Here Kagan argues that attempts to defend these sorts of moral limit are inadequate. In thus rejecting two of the most fundamental features of commonsense morality, the book offers a sustained attack on our ordinary moral views.

For thirty years, Peter Singer's Practical Ethics has been the classic introduction to applied ethics. For this third edition, the author has revised and updated all the chapters and added a new chapter addressing climate change, one of the most important ethical challenges of our generation. Some of the questions discussed in this book concern our daily lives. Is it ethical to buy luxuries when others do not have enough to eat? Should we buy meat from intensively reared animals? Am I doing something wrong if my carbon footprint is above the global average? Other questions confront us as concerned citizens: equality and discrimination on the grounds of race or sex; abortion, the use of embryos for research and euthanasia; political violence and terrorism; and the preservation of our planet's environment. This book's lucid style and provocative arguments make it an ideal text for university courses and for anyone willing to think about how she or he ought to live.