Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, is one of the world’s most prominent ethicists. He is the author of Practical Ethics, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals, and One World, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason).
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Peter Singer
Commentaries by Peter Singer
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Why Pay More?
PRINCETON – When Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, went to Ukraine for talks last month, his Ukrainian counterparts reportedly l…
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Fairness and Climate Change
PRINCETON – A sense of fairness is universal among humans, but people often differ about exactly what fairness requires in a specific situat…
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The Ethics of Big Food
PRINCETON – Last month, Oxfam, the international aid organization, launched a campaign called “Behind the Brands.” The goal is to assess the…
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A New Year of Hope for Animals
PRINCETON – The moral progress of a society, it has often been said, can be judged by how it treats its weakest members. Individual chimpanz…
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Ethics and Agriculture
MELBOURNE – Should rich countries – or investors based there – be buying agricultural land in developing countries? That question is raised …
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Should We Live to 1,000?
PRINCETON – On which problems should we focus research in medicine and the biological sciences? There is a strong argument for tackling the …
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America’s Flawed Election
PRINCETON – No doubt many people around the world, if not most, breathed a sigh of relief over the re-election of US President Barack Obama.…
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God and Woman in Iran
PRINCETON – My grandmother was one of the first women to study mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. When she graduated, in 1…
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Public Health versus Private Freedom?
PRINCETON – In contrasting decisions last month, a United States Court of Appeals struck down a US Food and Drug Administration requirement …
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The Real Abortion Tragedy
MELBOURNE – In the Dominican Republic last month, a pregnant teenager suffering from leukemia had her chemotherapy delayed, because doctors …
Recent comment received by Peter Singer
Recent comments by Peter Singer
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Are Humans Getting Better?
Correction by the author:
The column states that the Semai people of Malaysia have a murder rate comparable, in proportion to population, to that of Detroit.
I have since been contacted by Professor Robert Dentan, an anthropologist who has carried out extensive research on the Semai, and whose information was used by Bruce Knauft in an article that in turn is referenced in Steven Pinker's book. On the basis of the information supplied by Professor Dentan, and after consulting Professor Knauft, I withdraw the comment about the Semai. The evidence of homicide among the Semai is anecdotal and insufficient to support the conclusion that they have a murder rate comparable to that of Detroit, or anywhere else, for that matter.
The Hidden Costs of Money
Paul Peters: It's a two-sides sword. The native-american practise of the yearly give-away is a great modus to combine "noblesse oblige" with a natural instinct and systemic asymmetries.
A New Year of Hope for Animals
Linda K. Lyons: Why is it a crime with a big fine and jail time in the U.S.A. (except for 2 states), that if a baby injured squirrel falls out of it's nest in a tree in your own back yard? I'm in Texas and have nurt…