Peters Dilemma

Páginas: 5 (1048 palabras) Publicado: 19 de noviembre de 2012
Is Peter Singer’s Solution to World Poverty the most viable way to reduce poverty?
Peter Singer is an Australian Utilitarian philosopher. He is mostly known for his applied ethics and for his controversial opinions in topics such as abortion and infanticide. Peter Singer also claims that people who possess more than they need should give it to donation in order to help the needy; this topic hasarouse many critics which we will detail further on.
In an interview held by William Crawley in 2007 to Singer, while Singer was a teacher of philosophy in Princeton University, he was confronted with various questions. A variety of topics were held, some of them are Abortion, Animal rights and Poverty. Reducing Poverty is a major priority to Singer and he was asked about his theory and whypeople who have a surplus should give that surplus to organizations that could distribute the money to people suffering from poverty.
Many people wonder what the world would be like if everyone donated a certain amount of his or her income to organizations in charge of reducing poverty. Peter Singer contributes to this with an article denominated “Peter Singer’s solution to World Poverty” in hisessay he starts by proposing that if anyone has 200 dollars in surplus they should consider donating them; 200 dollars that can save a child’s life from preventable diseases such as diarrhea. In addition, he says “People have little sense of obligations towards strangers”.

Peter Singer’s solution also quotes Peter Unger’s book “Living High and Letting Die”; There is one example drawn up thatcreates a scenario of two railroads that unite, the train is coming and it is headed towards the railroad that has a child crossing it, while the other railroad has the Bugatti of “Bob”, which is Bob’s investment and financial security. If Bob decides to turn the direction of the train he will destroy his financial future, but if he goes with the other option he will kill a child. This is where ethicsenters the scenario, what is the correct behavior to grasp?
Peter Singer uses this analogy to persuade its readers, he claims that if you have two hundred dollars in surplus you are obligated to donate them, if you do not do so you are in the same situation as Bob, killing a child while you have the possibility to save him or her just with two hundred dollars. Furthermore Singer decides thatwhatever surplus you have has to be donated or at least 10% of the total income; but did he not state that 200 dollars were enough? Why did he change his mind?
However as all topics in ethics, this is a controversial topic and critics arose. Should people donate two hundred, one thousand, or what percentage of their income if not the whole surplus? This is a dilemma, since Singer changes his ideasat the end of his essay. In Greg’s Schaefers essay “Singer's not-so Persuasive Solution to World Poverty” wee see that the controversy derives from two main quotes Singer says:
1. "I can see no escape from the conclusion that each one of us with wealth surplus to his or her essential needs should be giving most of it to help people suffering from poverty so dire as to be life-threatening"(Singer 372)
2. “Again, the formula is simple: whatever money you're spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away" (Singer 372).

Schaefer claims there is inconsistency in Singer’s essay because first he claims that two hundred are enough to save lives and he ends up asking for all the excess of money. In other words, Singer asks people that have more than what they needed to givetheir extra cash to donation. Schaefer says that If Singer would have been consistent with his recommendations more people would have participated and his essay would not be criticized as much as it is.

In conclusion, we have the option to give some of our money or not. It does not have to be obligatory but we should keep in mind that lives are more important than things. Statistics show that...
Leer documento completo

Regístrate para leer el documento completo.

Estos documentos también te pueden resultar útiles

  • Ethical Dilemma
  • Wolfgang Petersen
  • Anomalia de peters
  • Criterios de Peters
  • Thomas peters
  • Tom peters
  • Thomas peters
  • peters y waterrman

Conviértase en miembro formal de Buenas Tareas

INSCRÍBETE - ES GRATIS