Peter Singer

Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher whose work has shaped debates about animal ethics, global poverty, and practical approaches to reducing suffering.

Utilitarianism: A family of ethical theories that judges actions by their consequences for overall well-being. Singer uses consequentialist reasoning to compare the harms and benefits of choices.
Animal liberation: The ethical and political movement seeking to end the exploitation of nonhuman animals. Singer’s book of this title helped bring his argument against speciesism to a broad audience.
University of Melbourne: A public research university in Melbourne, Australia, founded in 1853. Singer studied philosophy there before pursuing postgraduate work at Oxford.
Deontological ethics: Ethical theories that assess actions by duties or rules rather than only by their consequences. These theories can reject actions Singer’s consequentialist reasoning permits.
Consequentialism: The view that the moral status of an action depends on its consequences. It supplies the basic structure of Singer’s arguments about reducing suffering.
Effective altruism: A movement that uses evidence and reasoning to identify effective ways to help others. Singer’s arguments for giving effectively helped shape the movement’s public case.
University of Oxford: A collegiate research university in Oxford, England, with a history dating to the medieval period. Singer completed his doctorate there, where he developed his philosophical approach.
Tom Regan: An American philosopher known for arguing that many animals possess inherent value and rights. Regan opposed animal exploitation through a rights-based theory rather than Singer’s utilitarian approach.
Equal consideration of interests: The principle that comparable interests deserve comparable moral weight, regardless of whose interests they are. Singer applies it across species and to people distant from those able to help.
Famine, Affluence, and Morality: A 1972 essay arguing that affluent people should prevent serious suffering when they can do so without comparable sacrifice. This essay gives Singer’s influential argument for aiding people in extreme poverty.

Linked from 10 pages