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201cb93 What we are doing to strangers in other communities right now is, therefore, far more serious and far more widespread than the harm we would do if we were in the habit of occasionally sending out a group of warriors to rape and pillage a village or two. Yet causing imperceptible harm at a distance by the release of waste gases is a completely new form of harm, and so we lack any kind of instinctive inhibitions or emotional response against .. global-warming ethics Peter Singer
8e7cc80 the idea that there are objective ethical truths that are independent of what anyone desires. Peter Singer
513aaf6 Climate change is already causing, every week, as many deaths as occurred in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. global-warming ethics Peter Singer
48e4397 Everyone has boundaries. If you find yourself doing something that makes you bitter, it is time to reconsider. Is Peter Singer
1452342 To forestall misunderstandings: there is value in creating and enjoying art. To many people, drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, and playing a musical instrument are vital forms of self-expression, and their lives would be poorer without them. People produce art in all cultures and in all kinds of situations, even when they cannot satisfy their basic physical needs. Other people enjoy seeing art. In a world in which everyone had enough t.. Peter Singer
7ff07ea Population growth is not a reason against giving aid but a reason for reconsidering the kind of aid to give. global-warming ethics Peter Singer
8183a21 Target groups you care about that other people mostly don't, and take advantage of strategies other people are biased against using. Peter Singer
bb978de There are plenty of violent people, but for any randomly selected person today the chances of meeting a violent death at the hands of his or her fellow humans is lower now than it has ever been in human history. Peter Singer
f81f9c4 The world does produce enough to feed its inhabitants - in fact we waste vast quantities of grain and soybeans by feeding them to animals, getting back from the animals only a small fraction of the nutritional value of the plant foods we put into them. global-warming ethics Peter Singer
87b214a If a flock of chickens is without water on a hot day, and all you have to do to prevent them from dying slowly and painfully is turn on a tap, you ought to turn it on. If to do so you have to walk a few extra steps in shoes that pinch your little toe, you ought to walk those few extra steps. Peter Singer
572402c they took this as a law of nature, a self-evident necessary truth. On the contrary, says Marx, it bears the stamp of a society 'in which the process of production has the mastery over man, instead of being controlled by him'. Peter Singer
04b257c We have an obligation to help those in absolute poverty that is no less strong than our obligation to rescue a drowning child from a pond. global-warming ethics Peter Singer
7ecf209 If we want to encourage people to do the most good, we should not focus on whether what they are doing involves a sacrifice, in the sense that it makes them less happy. We should instead focus on whether what makes them happy involves increasing the well-being of others. If we wish, we can redefine the terms egoism and altruism in this way, so that they refer to whether people's interests include a strong concern for others--it if does, the.. Peter Singer
0906c77 To explain our conventional ethical attitudes, is not to justify them. morality philosophy Peter Singer
6dd79f2 In fact, the Nazis did not have a euthanasia program, in the proper sense of the word. Their so-called euthanasia program was not motivated by concern for the suffering of those killed. If it had been, they would not have kept their operations secret, deceived relatives about the cause of death of those killed, or exempted from the program certain privileged classes, such as veterans of the armed services or relatives of the euthanasia staf.. morality philosophy euthanasia nazi Peter Singer
5750431 To argue against abortion on the grounds that it prevents beings of high intrinsic value coming into the world is implicitly to condemn practices that reduce the future human population: contraception, whether by 'artificial' means or by 'natural' means such as abstinence on days when the woman is likely to be fertile, and also celibacy. This argument does not provide any reason for thinking abortion worse than any other means of population.. morality philosophy ethics Peter Singer
f9479c8 Dairy farmers routinely remove calves from their mothers at an early age so that the milk will be available for humans; anyone who has lived on a dairy farm will know that, for days after the calves have gone, their mothers keep calling for them. morality veganism philosophy-of-life ethics Peter Singer
f4a8373 It is easy for us to criticize the prejudices of our grandfathers, from which our fathers freed themselves. It is more difficult to search for prejudices among the beliefs and values we hold. prejudice bias rationality values Peter Singer
d94154e Wages therefore tend to the lowest possible level compatible with keeping an adequate supply of workers alive. Peter Singer
1d58152 In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. (CM 254) Peter Singer
c4405c5 Since reasoning alone proved incapable of fully resolving the clash between self-interest and ethics, it is unlikely that rational argument will persuade every rational person to act ethically. Peter Singer
8349823 The perspective on ourselves that we get when we take the point of view of the universe also yields as much objectivity as we need if we are to find a cause that is worthwhile in a way that is independent of our own desires. The most obvious such cause is the reduction of pain and suffering, wherever it is to be found. Peter Singer
b266eee In the former, Kant pictured man as a being capable of following a rational moral law, but also liable to be swayed from it by the non-rational desires which have their origin in our physical nature. To act morally is thus always a struggle. Victory is to be won by the suppression of all desires except the feeling of reverence for the moral law, which leads us to do our duty for its own sake. Peter Singer
0acb4d8 Our own happiness, therefore, is a by-product of aiming at something else and is not to be obtained by setting our sights on happiness alone. Peter Singer
f79c605 The perspective on ourselves that we get when we take the point of view of the universe also yields as much objectivity as we need if we are to find a cause that is worthwhile... independent of our own desires. The most obvious such cause is the reduction of pain and suffering, wherever it is to be found. Peter Singer
d5ba67e The moral unity to be expected in different ages is not a unity of standard, or of acts, but a unity of tendency. . . . At one time the benevolent affections embrace merely the family, soon the circle expanding includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity, and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man with the animal world. --W. E. H. LECKY, The History of European Morals Peter Singer
6bd852d That those who aim at happiness for happiness's sake often fail to find it, whereas others find happiness in pursuing altogether different goals, has been called 'the paradox of hedonism'. It is not, of course, a logical paradox but a claim about the way in which we come to be happy. Like other generalizations on this subject, it lacks empirical confirmation. Yet it matches our everyday observations and is consistent with our nature as evol.. inspirational meaning-of-life Peter Singer
8f62540 Science does not stand still, and neither does philosophy, although the latter has a tendency to walk in circles. Peter Singer
078b244 Just as a rat can be conditioned to press a lever in return for a reward of food, so a human being can be conditioned by professional rewards to ignore the ethical issues raised by animal experiments. Peter Singer
efc19c5 Animal Liberation is Human Liberation too. Peter Singer
b2e6ecf Ethics is inescapable. Peter Singer
8ebdedb Human beings are social animals. We were social before we were human. Peter Singer
48d63c0 Everyday we act in ways that reflect our ethical judgements. Peter Singer
a2965bf The principles of ethics come from our own nature as social, reasoning beings. Peter Singer
a5b7f8b Ethics seems a morass which we have to cross, but get hopelessly bogged in when we make the attempt. Peter Singer
f9323b8 We are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we could have prevented. Peter Singer
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