on Famine Affluence and Morality Thomas Nadelhoffer Dept of Philosophy Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Laureate Holocaust Survivor Sometimes we must interfere When human lives are endangered when human dignity is in jeopardy national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant Whene ID: 402806
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Peter Singer" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Peter Singer on Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Thomas Nadelhoffer
Dept. of PhilosophySlide2
Elie Wiesel:Nobel Peace Laureate, Holocaust Survivor
“Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must- at that moment- become the center of the universe."
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Slide3
Moral Malaise & Misguided Priorities
Steelers’ Heinz Field: $281 Million
Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field: $512 Million Slide4
The Toys of the Mega-Rich
World’s Most Expensive Private Jet: Airbus A380
The “Flying Palace”
Cost: $300 Million
World’s Most Expensive “Gigayacht”: Wally Island
325 ft. long and 70 ft. wide
Cost: $200 MillionSlide5
The Face of FamineSlide6
Facts About Hunger & PovertyNearly one in four people live
on less than $1 per
day
.
3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive
on $2 per day.
To
satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US $13
billion--what
the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.Slide7
The Key Moral QuestionEvery 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.
The question is:
W
hat, if anything, do we owe them?Slide8
Peter Singer’s ChallengeTwo Fundamental Moral Assumptions:
Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad.
If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.Slide9
The Shallow Pond Slide10
Singer’s ResponseThe Proximity Thesis
Does Distance Make a Difference?
Singer and the Sorties Paradox
The Descriptive vs. the Normative
Do Numbers Make a Difference?
Singer and the Reductio ad Absurdum
“Should I consider that I am less obliged to pull the drowning child out of the pond if on looking around I see other people, no further away than I am, who have also noticed the child but are doing nothing?”Slide11
Charity vs. DutyCharity as an ideal excuse for moral inactivity.
Upsetting the moral categories.
Helping as obligatory rather than supererogatory.
“The moral point of view requires us to look beyond the interests of our own society.”Slide12
Objections:
Too drastic
Over-demanding
Counter-intuitive
Population Control*
Helping at Home FirstSlide13
“What is the point of relating philosophy to public affairs if we do not take our conclusions seriously?”
--Peter SingerSlide14
Psychological BarriersSlide15
“The statistics of mass murder or genocide—no matter how large the numbers—do not convey the true meaning of such atrocities. The numbers fail to trigger the affective emotion or feeling required to motivate action. In other words, we know that genocide in Darfur is real, but we do not “feel” that reality. In fact, not only do we fail to grasp the gravity of the statistics, but the numbers themselves may actually hinder the psychological processes required to capture attention and create emotion.”
--Samantha PowerSlide16
Compassion Fatigue“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” –Mother Theresa
“At what number do other individuals blur for me?” –Annie Dillard
Compassion Fatigue: New Studies
Numbers and Psychological Numbing
Evolution, Genocide, and Moral Obligation
Innate but not Immutable!Slide17
We Owe Them…