Famine, Affluence, and Morality

Singer is a renowned philosopher and professor. He holds degrees from the University of Melbourne and Oxford University and is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He has also taught at Monash University, Oxford University, and New York University. Singer’s work in the areas of animal rights, poverty relief, and bioethics is especially well known; he typically espouses a branch of philosophy called utilitarianism—the doctrine advocating for actions that brings the greatest good for the greatest number of people. He was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2012 and the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture in 2021.

The essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” made Singer famous early in his career. Its main theme, the obligation of affluent nations to help poorer ones to reduce human suffering, is one that Singer has focused on and developed throughout his work. He returned to this idea in the editorial “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” originally published in the New York Times Magazine in 1999, which he called “an updated version of ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’” (34). He also addresses the idea in the books The Life You Can Save (2009) and The Most Good You Can Do (2015). In recent years, his focus on altruism has centered on giving that is most effective. To that end, he founded the organization The Life You Can Save, which maintains the website thelifeyoucansave.org.

Singer’s work has made him one of the best-known and most influential philosophers working today. His book Animal Liberation brought him international attention. It popularized the term “speciesism,” coined earlier by Richard Ryder, the idea that the distinction between humans and other animals is a form of discrimination no different from racism or ageism. The book helped promote the idea of animal rights, as well as vegetarianism and veganism. Not all of Singer’s positions have met with acclaim, however. In his work relating to euthanasia, he has made controversial statements regarding the killing of newborns, particularly those with severe disabilities; his beliefs led some to protest his appointment to the faculty of Princeton University in 1999.