Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:36:10 GMT

Global Poverty: How Demanding Are Our Obligations?. Peter Singer

Peter Singer walks listeners through one of his most provocative philosophical arguments — that affluent individuals must acknowledge their moral obligation to relieve the unnecessary death and suffering of the poor. His sinuous reasoning starts with the simple case of a bystander coming upon a child drowning in a pond with no one else around. Should the bystander leave the child to drown, or must he stay and save the child? Most people intuitively recognize a duty to rescue the child. Singer argues from analogy that there is