Peter Singer

Writing for PS since 2001
238 commentaries
1 videos & podcasts

Peter Singer, Founder of the nonprofit organization The Life You Can Save, is Emeritus Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. His books include Consider the Turkey, Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), Rethinking Life and Death, The Point of View of the Universe, co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, The Most Good You Can Do, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, One World Now, Ethics in the Real World, Why Vegan?, and Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction, also with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek. In April 2021, W.W. Norton published his new edition of Apuleius’s The Golden Ass. In 2013, he was named the world's third "most influential contemporary thinker" by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. He is a co-author (with Shih Chao-Hwei) of The Buddhist and the Ethicist (Shambhala Publications, 2023).

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What Progressives Must Learn from Trump’s Campaign
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What Progressives Must Learn from Trump’s Campaign

Nov 14, 2024 Peter Singer thinks one of the most important lessons is to uphold open debate and address hot-button issues head-on.
Protesting Ethically
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Protesting Ethically

Sep 3, 2024 Peter Singer & Martin Skladany apply four tests of proportionality to nonviolent demonstrations in democratic societies.
Will We Survive the Next 100 Years?
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Will We Survive the Next 100 Years?

Aug 7, 2024 Peter Singer urges governments to treat existential risks to our species with the seriousness they deserve.
Will Biden Spoil It All?
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Will Biden Spoil It All?

Jul 2, 2024 Peter Singer thinks the US president should step aside, or, like other one-time heroes, risk tarnishing his legacy.
Organ Donation Can Save Donors’ Lives, Too
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Organ Donation Can Save Donors’ Lives, Too

Jun 19, 2024 Peter Singer shows why a recipient of a new liver or kidney is not necessarily the only one who benefits.

What Is Missing from the Inequality Debate

What Is Missing from the Inequality Debate

Oct 6, 2021 Peter Singer & Maciej Kuziemski show that no push for equality is complete without accounting for the needs of future generations and other species.

The Two Dark Sides of COVID-19
Mar 2, 2020

We are not trying to "smuggle" anything in -- it's obvious from our title that we are saying that there is a second "dark side" to COVID-19, and the text makes it clear that we think that animals ought to receive moral consideration. We don't know what you mean by "clean cut scientific arguments," but all policy recommendations must start from ethical premises.
- Charles Driver Mar 8, 2020
  
  Definitely, but you're mixing ethical premises that are, to at least some people, distinct -- one regarding the wellbeing of humans, the other regarding that of animals. Getting your foot in the door by leveraging current events and a widely accepted premise, only to then spring a less popular premise on people, might lead one to wonder to what extent the arguments genuinely concern the first premise / current events...
  - kim southwood Mar 9, 2020
    
    Humans do or don't make ethical choices based on their own observations. To encourage an ethical choice based on observations of the role of human/animal interaction in triggering the COVID-19 outbreak is useful. Those who disapprove of this article's ethical consideration might well label it as a "shrill animal activist manifesto" or as advancing "a less popular premise". For many it supports a deeply help ethical choice to advance pleasure rather than pain. The authors achieve this with a spotlight on cold, stark reality.
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- Tilly Vacher Mar 6, 2020
  
  Very well said Peter Singer. If my father, Jon Wynne-Tyson, were able he would say so too.
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The Migration Dilemma
Jul 8, 2018

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but I did not intend to suggest that Trump faces a moral dilemma. The moral dilemma is faced by his Democrat opponents. Even if net immigration to the US has declined, as it has in Europe, the Democrats cannot afford to allow Trump to succeed in branding them as soft on illegal immigration. That could cost them the election, and bring about the disaster of a second Trump term.
- Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu Jul 8, 2018
  
  Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Singer.
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- Peter Schaeffer Jul 8, 2018
  
  I guess "abolish ICE" is really a hard-line position on immigration. The Democrats (most of them) aren't "soft on immigration". They are way beyond "soft on immigration". They don't believe in the very idea of borders. Why should they? Immigrants provide the Democrats with cheap labor, cheap votes, cheap virtue-signaling, and a massive new constituency for expanding the welfare state. What's their not to like? What could possibly go wrong?
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Why Loving Our Animals Is Not Enough
Jun 11, 2018

Easy for you to say that the dog's suffering while you are at work is of little consequence. How does the dog feel about that? I think all suffering matters. So does joy, of course. The question is the balance between them, and whether it can be made more positive.
Crime and No Punishment for the Iraq War
Apr 8, 2018

Censored by whom?
- Petey Bee Apr 9, 2018
  
  By the moderation staff, I assume - the ones who filter out the incoherent ad-hominems and hate speech that every comment section on the internet attracts. They do a great job keeping this comment section civil, no disrespect to them.
  
  The article was about Blair contemplatnig a return to public life, and how his wealth of experience would be welcome. I suggested that the appropriate venue for his return would be the ICC. Reason being that he was instrumental to selling the Iraq War to the American public and especially to legislators and the business class. We love a nice English accent here, and G.W. Bush isn't the most convincing person, so Blair's role was indispensible.
  
  Whether the case for that war was outright fraud or extreme negligence is debatable. But at the time I had a hard time conceiving of a thought process that would justify rewarding either one. "Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs" wasn't working for me at that time.
  
  I can see how it is offensive to put the man's most significant legacy to the world in such a negative light. I was a little surprised that this all was controversial enough to cross the line. It's really ok, just an interesting marker of where "responsible discourse" lies.
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Countering Islamic Extremism
Mar 12, 2015

On the contrary, I have protested against NATO's failure to have sufficient respect for the lives of innocent civilians - see, eg, my Project Syndicate column "What Price an Afghan Life?" April 1, 2011.
But to say that ISIS have killed only a handful is clearly false. Just today the Iraqi forces that have re-taken Tikrit have uncovered mass graves containing the bodies of hundreds of soldiers massacred by ISIS at Camp Speicher.