Book Review
Ethics in the Real World: 82 Essays (by Peter Singer)
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- Many times, Singer’s arguments were in the form of thought-experiments. I think this is an increasingly lost art in philosophy. For example, Singer’s view that we should donate to nonprofits curing trachoma rather than art museums is informed by a mental exercise. Suppose an evil demon in the museum picks people at random and inflicts blindness upon them. Would we visit such a museum? If we still would (which is unlikely), then we can justify building the museum. But if not, then it is better to donate to curing trachoma. In general, the thought-experiments are followed by a question. If the answer is “yes,” then you are committed to one view. If “no,” then you are committed to the opposite view.
- There are many things about Singer’s sentence-level structure that I can enthuse about but what stands out the most is that it’s straight to the point. He does not mince words. For example, he writes that the abortion argument is about whether the right to life of an unborn fetus is greater than the right of an adult to her body. This is perhaps the shortest and clearest summary of the debate I know. Similarly, he is not afraid to use constructions like X “says” Y. He really exemplifies Orwell’s third rule of writing. I would recommend this book to everyone.