Peter Singer on Famine, Affluence, and Morality Thomas
Nadelhoffer Dept. of Philosophy
Slide 2
Elie Wiesel: Nobel Peace Laureate, Holocaust Survivor Sometimes
we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human
dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become
irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their
race, religion, or political views, that place must- at that
moment- become the center of the universe." There may be times when
we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a
time when we fail to protest."
Slide 3
Moral Malaise & Misguided Priorities Steelers Heinz Field:
$281 Million Eagles Lincoln Financial Field: $512 Million
Slide 4
The Toys of the Mega-Rich Worlds Most Expensive Private Jet:
Airbus A380 The Flying Palace Cost: $300 Million Worlds Most
Expensive Gigayacht: Wally Island 325 ft. long and 70 ft. wide
Cost: $200 Million
Slide 5
The Face of Famine
Slide 6
Facts About Hunger & Poverty Nearly one in four people live
on less than $1 per day. 3 billion people in the world today
struggle to survive on $2 per day. To satisfy the world's
sanitation and food requirements would cost only US $13
billion--what the people of the United States and the European
Union spend on perfume each year.
Slide 7
The Key Moral Question Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of
hunger. The question is: What, if anything, do we owe them?
Slide 8
Peter Singers Challenge Two Fundamental Moral Assumptions:
1.Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care
are bad. 2.If it is in your power to prevent something bad from
happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral
importance, we ought, morally, to do it.
Slide 9
The Shallow Pond
Slide 10
Singers Response The Proximity Thesis Does Distance Make a
Difference? Singer and the Sorties Paradox The Descriptive vs. the
Normative Do Numbers Make a Difference? Singer and the Reductio ad
Absurdum Should I consider that I am less obliged to pull the
drowning child out of the pond if on looking around I see other
people, no further away than I am, who have also noticed the child
but are doing nothing?
Slide 11
Charity vs. Duty Charity as an ideal excuse for moral
inactivity. Upsetting the moral categories. Helping as obligatory
rather than supererogatory. The moral point of view requires us to
look beyond the interests of our own society.
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Objections: 1.Too drastic 2.Over-demanding 3.Counter-intuitive
4.Population Control* 5.Helping at Home First
Slide 13
What is the point of relating philosophy to public affairs if
we do not take our conclusions seriously? --Peter Singer
Slide 14
Psychological Barriers
Slide 15
The statistics of mass murder or genocideno matter how large
the numbersdo not convey the true meaning of such atrocities. The
numbers fail to trigger the affective emotion or feeling required
to motivate action. In other words, we know that genocide in Darfur
is real, but we do not feel that reality. In fact, not only do we
fail to grasp the gravity of the statistics, but the numbers
themselves may actually hinder the psychological processes required
to capture attention and create emotion. --Samantha Power
Slide 16
Compassion Fatigue If I look at the mass, I will never act. If
I look at the one, I will. Mother Theresa At what number do other
individuals blur for me? Annie Dillard Compassion Fatigue: New
Studies Numbers and Psychological Numbing Evolution, Genocide, and
Moral Obligation Innate but not Immutable!