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Drowning Child Analogy
"Famine, Affluence, and Morality" is an essay written by Peter Singer in 1971 and published in ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' in 1972. It argues that affluent persons are morally obligated to donate far more resources to humanitarian causes than is considered normal in Western cultures. The essay was inspired by the starvation of Bangladesh Liberation War refugees, and uses their situation as an example, although Singer's argument is general in scope and not limited to the example of Bangladesh. The essay is anthologized widely as an example of Western ethical thinking. Summary One of the core arguments of this essay is that, if one can use one's wealth to reduce suffering—for example, by aiding famine-relief efforts—without any significant reduction in the well-being of oneself or others, it is immoral not to do so. Singer introduces the "drowning child" argument: According to Singer, inaction is clearly immoral if a child is drowning in a shallow pond and someone ''can'' s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, utilitarian perspective. He is known in particular for his book '' Animal Liberation'' (1975), in which he argues in favour of veganism, and his essay " Famine, Affluence, and Morality", in which he argues in favour of donating to help the global poor. For most of his career, he was a preference utilitarian, but he stated in ''The Point of View of the Universe'' (2014), coauthored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, that he had become a hedonistic utilitarian. On two occasions, Singer served as chair of the philosophy department at Monash University, where he founded its Centre for Human Bioethics. In 1996 he stood unsuccessfully as a Greens candidate for the Australian Senate. In 2004 Singer was recognised as the Australian Humanist of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Living High And Letting Die
''Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence'' is a philosophy book by Peter K. Unger, published in 1996. Overview Inspired by Peter Singer's 1971 essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality", Unger argues that for people in the developed world to live morally, they are morally obliged to make sacrifices to help mitigate human suffering and premature death in the third world, and further that it is acceptable (and morally right) to lie, cheat, and steal to mitigate suffering. Unger argues that the intuitive moral judgments most people have of several hypothetical moral scenarios, ''The Shallow Pond'', ''The Vintage Sedan'', and ''The Envelope'', are inconsistent. Unger presents the hypothetical case of ''The Vintage Sedan'': Not truly rich, your one luxury in life is a vintage Mercedes sedan that, with much time, attention, and money, you've restored to mint condition... One day, you stop at the intersection of two small country roads, both lightly traveled. Hearing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophy Essays
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some sources claim the term was coined by Pythagoras ( BCE), although this theory is disputed by some. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation. in . Historically, ''philosophy'' encompassed all bodies of knowledge and a practitioner was known as a ''philosopher''."The English word "philosophy" is first attested to , meaning "knowledge, body of knowledge." "natural philosophy," which began as a discipline in ancient India and Ancient Greece, encompasses astronomy, medicine, and physics. For example, Newton's 1687 ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'' later became classified as a book of physics. In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in all languages, including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikibooks, and Wikispecies, or downloaded for offsite use. As of July 2022, the repository contains over 87 million free-to-use media files, managed and editable by registered volunteers. Statistics page on Wikimedia Commons History The idea for the project came from Erik Möller in March 2004 and Wikimedia Commons were launched in September 7, 2004. In July 2013, the number of edits on Commons reached 100,000,000. Since 2018 it became possible to upload 3D models to the site. One of the first models uploaded to Commons was a reconstruction of the Asad Al-Lat statue which was destroyed in Palmyra by the ISIL in 2015. Various notable organizati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melinda Gates
Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist and former multimedia product developer and manager at Microsoft. French Gates has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most powerful women by ''Forbes''. In 2000, she and her then-husband Bill Gates co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization as of 2015. She and her ex-husband have been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour. In early May 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced they were getting divorced but will still remain co-chairs of the foundation. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021. Early life Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas. She is the second of four children born to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an aerospace engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. She has an older sister and two younger brothers. French, a Cath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), President (corporate title), president and software architect, chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. He was a major entrepreneur of the Home computer, microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Gates was born and raised in Seattle. In 1975, he and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It became the world's largest personal computer software company. Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer, but he remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect. During the late 1990s, he was Criticism of Microsoft, criticized for his bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Life You Can Save
''The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty'' is a 2009 book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, in which the author argues that citizens of affluent nations are behaving immorally if they do not act to end the poverty they know to exist in developing nations. The book is focused on giving to charity, and discusses philosophical considerations, describes practical and psychological obstacles to giving, and lists available resources for prospective donors (e.g. charity evaluators). Singer concludes the book by proposing a minimum ethical standard of giving. In December 2019, Singer announced the release of a revised tenth anniversary edition, available as a free eBook or audiobook from the website of The Life You Can Save, an organization founded to advance the book's ideas.The audiobook is narrated by celebrities including Shabana Azmi, Kristen Bell, Nicholas D'Agosto, Stephen Fry, Paul Simon, and Natalia Vodianova. See: Synopsis The philosophical argument S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doing Good Better
''Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and How You Can Make a Difference'' is a 2015 book by William MacAskill that serves as a primer on the effective altruism movement that seeks to do the most good. It is published by Random House and was released on July 28, 2015. Reception Reviews Reviews of the book were generally positive. Writing for ''Marginal Revolution'', George Mason University economics professor Alex Tabarrok described the book as "that rare beast, a hard-headed, soft-hearted proponent of saving the world." He concluded his review by writing:Fortunately, effective altruism doesn't require Mother Theresa-like levels of altruism or Spock-like level of hard-headedness. What is needed is a cultural change so that people become proud of how they give and not just how much they give. Imagine, for example, that it becomes routine to ask "How does Givewell rate your charity?" Or, "GiveDirectly gives poor people cash–can you demonstrate that your charity is more effe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockean Proviso
The Lockean proviso is a feature of John Locke's labor theory of property which states that whilst individuals have a right to homestead private property from nature by working on it, they can do so only "at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others". Locke's formulation Overview The phrase ''Lockean proviso'' was coined by libertarian political philosopher Robert Nozick in ''Anarchy, State, and Utopia''. It is based on the ideas elaborated by John Locke in his ''Second Treatise of Government'', namely that self-ownership allows a person the freedom to mix his or her labor with natural resources, converting common property into private property. Locke concludes that people need to be able to protect the resources they are using to live on their property and that this is a natural right. Nozick used this idea to form his Lockean proviso which governs the initial acquisition of property in a society, but in order for his ideas of ownership of proper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Effective Altruism
Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, called , often choose careers based on the amount of good that the career achieves while donating to charities based on maximising impact. The movement developed during the 2000s, and the name was coined in 2011. Prominent philosophers influential to the movement include Peter Singer, Toby Ord, and William MacAskill. Several books and many articles about the movement have since been published, and the Effective Altruism Global conference has been held since 2013. As of 2022, several billion dollars have been committed to effective altruist causes. Popular cause priorities within effective altruism include global health and development, social inequality, animal welfare, and risks to the survival of humanity over the long-term future. Eff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bangladesh Famine Of 1974
The Bangladesh famine of 1974 began in March 1974 and ended in about December of the same year. The famine is considered one of the worst in the 20th century; it was characterised by massive flooding along the Brahmaputra River as well as high mortality. Overview After independence in 1971, Bangladesh's economy faced a crisis. According to ''Time'' magazine: Warnings of famine began in March 1974 when the price of rice rose sharply. In this month "widespread starvation started in Rangpur district", the region which would become one of three most afflicted. It had only been two years and three months since the end of the war for Bangladeshi independence (December 1971) and the country's formal creation. In many ways, Bangladesh's new state and devastated infrastructure and markets were wholly unprepared to deal with the situation. Corruption among the newly appointed officials was rampant and widespread. In April, though government officials reiterated that the crisis would be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Arthur (philosopher)
John Arthur (September 22, 1946 – January 22, 2007) was an American professor of philosophy and an expert in legal theory, constitutional theory, social ethics, and political philosophy. He taught at Binghamton University for 18 years. Early life and education John Arthur, son of L. James Arthur and Elizabeth Gleason Arthur, grew up in Denver, Colorado. Arthur earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy and history at Cornell College and his master's degree in political sociology and PhD in philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Academic career In total, John Arthur spent time teaching at five colleges and universities, including Brandeis University, Harvard University, Tennessee State University, the College of Charleston and Lake Forest College. From 1981–1988 Arthur taught at Tennessee State University. Finding the segregated conditions at TSU to be in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, he organized a biracial group t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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