Peter Singer Famine

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Thomas Cahill Present Moral Problems Professor Jason Gardner 11 April 2024 Objections On Singer’s Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Singer argues the moral implications of donating to foreign aid to end famine. In his argument, he concludes one ought to donate to foreign aid to the level of marginal utility, which is defined as the level of donation at which giving the money is more detrimental to you in comparison to the good it does. One aspect of this argument is the idea that proximity shouldn’t influence whether you ought to give famine aid due to the modern capabilities of foreign outreach. However, I do not see this as the case. Proximity should be considered where you allocate your money, and when considered, Singer’s argument loses its …show more content…
Consider a scenario in which you have $50, and you must choose to donate your money to either: a local homeless man who lives a few blocks away, or a foreigner in their homeland thousands of miles away. Suppose you decide to give the money to the homeless man: he can spend that money on a fairly respectable outfit, and you help him find a job interview. From here, he can generate a source of income to buy his own food, water, and shelter, and you check in with him regularly. Now consider the alternative where you give the money to the foreigner. This money can feed them for a week or two, but they are unsure of how to get more money to take care of themselves. Furthermore, both of you lack a method of contacting one another to set up some sort of continuous outreach. This scenario emphasizes the importance of proximity. Notice how much more use the homeless man generates from the money due to your ability to interact with him. He is in a developed country, with opportunities to use his money to provide for

Peter Singer Famine

At the beginning of Famine, Affluence, and Morality by Peter Singer, the author states that he is in Bengal. Bengal is a city in India that is has a crumbling economy. According to his essay, “the people are dying from lack of food, shelter, and medical care.” In general humans haven’t been helping themselves by ignoring this ongoing problem in their societies. People will hold protest and demonstrate for other causes but not ones that are directly visible. It seems that people have turned a blind…

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Peter Singer Famine Summary

In “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”, Peter Singer argues the manner in how people in affluent countries react towards those in need. Our traditional moral categories of duty and charity have diminished during time and we also view a deficiency in food, shelter, and poverty. Singer explains the insufficient moral responsibility of people and assumes that a lack of food causes starvation and family deaths are a form of suffering as well. As we all know, suffering is morally wrong; and these premises…

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Peter Singer Famine Analysis

The difference between duty and charity was made clear in Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” as he strongly argued people living in developed countries should be morally obligated to support people who are suffering. This paper will focus on Singer’s main argument and principles, the correct course of action felt by Singer to defeat poverty and the implications welfare consequentialism encounters when demanded on wealthy societies. Singer’s core argument contained two principles that…

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Peter Singer Famine Essay

Rationally, I agree with Peter Singer’s ode to fight famine and his claim that, as affluent beings, we are morally obligated to contribute in fighting it. My qualm with Singer’s argument is that it implies we need to fulfill this obligation all the time in saying “if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it” (Singer 231). It’s easy to derive from this statement that if we are, in essence…

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Peter Singer Famine Affluence And Morality

Peter Singer, an Australian moral philosopher, opposes to the way people perceive and deal with poverty, famine and the sufferance of the less fortunate. In his essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”, he argues that we are failing to perform our moral duties insofar as we live lives of relative luxury while others are suffering and dying due to diseases, famine. He believes that it’s possible to reduce the pain and the sufferance of people and to avoid it if we give up our nonessentials. He states…

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Famine, Affluence And Morality By Peter Singer

start the task because it seemed really daunting. So far in my life, I never had to write a specific number of pages for a paper. The expectation of writing “five” page was overwhelming. To start, I read the essay that was wrote by Peter Singer. Which was called Famine, Affluence and Morality. Though I understood what he was saying I disagreed with him. After reading I start to write my introduction and form a thesis for my paper. Afterwards, for better understanding of the material, I started researching…

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Famine, Affluence And Morality: The 1970s Peter Singer

During the 1970s Peter Singer wrote Famine, Affluence and Morality, which covered Singer’s thoughts on how we should treat those starving in poverty stricken countries. He outlined what John Arthur later called the greater moral evil rule. That is we should do everything we can to stop something bad from happening “without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance.” Taken at its strongest degree this would mean giving away everything you have until you are only just better off than those…

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Famine: Morality and Singer Essay

“Famine, Affluence, and Morality” name PHI208 Ethics and Moral Reasoning instructor date Peter Singer’s goal in “Famine, Affluence, and Morality was to convince people that the people as well as the governments should help with famine relief, primarily in East Bengal. Peter Singer wanted to let everyone know that the way that they deal with disasters is "morally unjustified". Mr. Singer’s three counter-arguments I think are that people from Bengali are far removed…

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World Hunger and Our Responsibilities Essay

McCullough PHI 200 Mind and Machine Week 2 Assignment Instructor: Jack Isbell September 24, 2012 In the article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” author Peter Singer believes that people who are wealthy should not spend money on unneeded objects while there are people starving in the world. Singer believes that people who are able to give money to the less fortunate, poverty and half-starving should do it to help them escape being poor. He also states…

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Influence Famine And Morality Analysis

In response to Peter Singer’s “Affluence, Famine, and Morality” Richard Arneson wrote "What Do We Owe Distant Needy Strangers?" In a short paragraph from this article Arneson states a view of common-sense when dealing with the problems discussed in Singer’s article. The common-sense view is simply a thought process that one should help others regardless of distance. But Arneson also says that the help “does not include any quantification of the extent.” So it would be safe to say that Arneson is…

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