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Peter Singer

Peter Singer

Writing for PS since 2001
217 commentaries
1 videos & podcasts

Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, is Founder of the nonprofit organization The Life You Can Save. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), Rethinking Life and Death, The Point of View of the Universe, co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, The Most Good You Can Do, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, One World Now, Ethics in the Real World, Why Vegan?, and Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction, also with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek. In April 2021, W.W. Norton published his new edition of Apuleius’s The Golden Ass. In 2013, he was named the world's third "most influential contemporary thinker" by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

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  1. Will the Catholic Church Rethink Contraception?
    singer215_JIM WATSONAFP via Getty Images_birth control JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

    Will the Catholic Church Rethink Contraception?

    Mar 7, 2023 Peter Singer welcomes the Vatican’s long-overdue openness to theological questioning of an outdated doctrine

  2. Quitting While on Top
    singer214_MARTY MELVILLEAFP via Getty Images_ardern hipkins MARTY MELVILLE/AFP via Getty Images

    Quitting While on Top

    Feb 10, 2023 Peter Singer considers why popular political leaders and champion athletes walk away at the peak of their careers.

  3. In Defense of the Art-Targeting Climate Activists
    singer213_CARLOS JASSOAFP via Getty Images_climateprotestart Carlos Jasso/AFP via Getty Images

    In Defense of the Art-Targeting Climate Activists

    Jan 3, 2023 Peter Singer shows why eco-activists can properly claim that their non-violent civil disobedience is justified.

  4. Has the FTX Debacle Discredited Effective Altruism?
    singer212_Alex WongGetty Images_sam bankman-fried Alex Wong/Getty Images

    Has the FTX Debacle Discredited Effective Altruism?

    Nov 23, 2022 Peter Singer argues that Sam Bankman-Fried's alleged financial malpractice was an unjustified means to a laudable end.

  5. Free Speech for Whom?
    singer211_ Iranian Supreme Leader Press OfficeHandoutAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_khamenei Iranian Supreme Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    Free Speech for Whom?

    Nov 7, 2022 Peter Singer unpacks Elon Musk’s reference, after purchasing Twitter, to promoting “healthy debate” on the platform.

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  1. afrasmussen17_TOFIK BABAYEVAFP via Getty Images_armeniaazerbaijanconflict Tofik Babayev/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Other Conflict on Europe’s Doorstep

    Anders Fogh Rasmussen warns that Azerbaijan may be preparing to renew its military aggression against neighboring Armenia.
  2. varoufakis101_Justin SullivanGetty Images_svb Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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    Let the Banks Burn

    Yanis Varoufakis

    The banking system we take for granted is unfixable. The good news is that we no longer need to rely on any private, rent-seeking, socially destabilizing network of banks, at least not the way we have so far.

     shows why the current private system is unfixable – and why we don’t need to tolerate it anymore.
  3. roach151_ TIMOTHY A. CLARYAFP via Getty Images)_svb collapse TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
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    How China Benefits from Another US Banking Crisis

    Stephen S. Roach thinks America’s latest financial trouble will reinforce a narrative of terminal national decline.
  4. op_schell1_Andrea VerdelliGetty Images_xijinping Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images
    8

    Xi Jinping’s Chinese Tragedy

    Orville Schell interviewed by Irena Grudzińska Gross

    Like Vladimir Putin, China's leader is so steeped in a narrative of victimhood and fearful of appearing weak that it is hard to imagine him ever leading China out of the mess he has created. He could well be remembered as the leader who squandered history's most remarkable economic success story.

     about the country's increasingly worrisome trajectory, both at home and abroad.
  5. zizek16_ Frank Rumpenhorstpicture alliance via Getty Images_chatbot Frank Rumpenhorst/picture alliance via Getty Images
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    Artificial Idiocy

    Slavoj Žižek fears that the rise of powerful chatbots will spell the death of irony and nuance in human thought.
  6. kabubomariara1_Per-Anders Pettersson Contributor Getty Images_research africa Per-Anders Pettersson / Contributor Getty Images
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    Localizing Development Research

    Julia Kaufman & Jane Wanjiku Mariara explain why funders should be providing more long-term resources to researchers in developing countries.
  7. eeckhout1_Feature ChinaFuture Publishing via Getty Images_digitalrenminbi Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images
    1

    The Simplest Fix for Banking

    Jan Eeckhout explains how central bank digital currencies would end bank runs and banks' excessive risk-taking.
  8. chellaney161_ARUN SANKARAFP via Getty Images_blinken lavrov ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images
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    America’s Interest in Ending the Ukraine Crisis

    Brahma Chellaney explains why prolonging the conflict risks realizing the West’s worst geopolitical nightmare.
  9. krueger61_Tom WilliamsCQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images_Intelsemicronductors Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
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    America’s Industrial Policy Is Counterproductive

    Anne O. Krueger laments that the Biden administration is adding red tape to an inefficient subsidy program.

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