Famine, action, and the normative
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
4-2021
Abstract
It has been 46 years since the publication of “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” by Peter Singer. In the paper Singer famously challenges readers to radically change their lives to save the lives of others, often in distant lands. With this paper, Peter Singer, perhaps the most famous living philosopher today, made his name and spawned the field of global justice. Although there have been improvements and successes, easily preventable deaths from poverty still occur in large numbers today. Philosophically the paper has been very influential and continues to generate considerable debate. We return to Singer’s argument in “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” and make the case that the argument is incomplete in that while Singer’s position that we are morally obliged to help relieve famine, hunger, and so on is supported by his argument, his position that we act all things considered is not.
Keywords
Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Global justice, Preventable deaths, Global poverty, Strong Principle, Consequentialism, Trumping worry, Broadness worry, Global basic structure
Discipline
Philosophy
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Journal of Value Inquiry
ISSN
0022-5363
Identifier
10.1007/s10790-021-09804-2
Publisher
Springer Verlag (Germany)
Citation
RYAN, Shane, & SONG, Fei.(2021). Famine, action, and the normative. Journal of Value Inquiry, .
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3700
Additional URL
http://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-021-09804-2