Writings on an Ethical Life

Absolutely incredible book, nothing less than life-changing. If you have ever considered ethics or struggled over ethical decisions, you should be reading this book. Singer is a full time ethical philosopher, has done an extraordinary amount of research on all the topics he presents, and is a very solid authoritative source for building your ethical base. Just like I would enjoy reading a book about chess by a professional player if I were learning chess, I thoroughly enjoyed mining Singer's expertise and extremely thorough research in order to figure out my own personal ethical code. Sure, some of the things here are controversial, but the fact is that a lot of the things our current society does are absurd. When slavery was the norm, a book by someone saying slavery was immoral and unjust would have been seen as "controversial" as well. While reading this, you must separate yourself from your own and your culture's moral values and view the issues purely on their own as much as possible. 50 years from now, you'll look back and realize how right he was.

The book has some good information, but it relies too much on The Golden Rule......Do unto others. While it is true, it is a bit of an elementary explanation for everything.

This book is well thought out and clearly organized in thought. Singer is someone that knows what he is talking about regarding what is really living an Ethical Life. Most people want to pretend he is wrong but sometimes the truth is inconvenient to how we live but it is the truth nonetheless and we become a better world and a better species because of it. If you really want to live an ethical life and feel good when you die about your existence in this world, read this book.

This book is a collection of thoughtful writings from several of the author's previous works, selected by the author himself. He describes himself as a "social democrat, utterly opposed to racist policies and a totalitarian state" and has a utilitarian philosophy with regard to ethics. (One of his books, which I have not read, is called "Practical Ethics".) From my objectivist viewpoint, these are contradictory sentiments which are reflected in the inconsistency of some of the essays, but the collection of essays does not directly address political or economic issues where utilitarian ideas can trample individual liberty. He gives "reason" some credit for helping to establish a code of ethics which we can live by, but doesn't see how it could be the sole foundation. He fails to mention or is unaware of Ayn Rand's work, nor does he refer to further thought in "her" philosophy of objectivism which does give the rational foundation for ethics that he struggles for in his early essays. Although he mentions the experimental work by Harvard researchers Trivers and Hamilton on reciprocal altruism, he fails to make the association that benevolence (the calculated risk by one human that he takes by helping another unrelated human without any guarantee that he may receive any benefit from the relationship in return) is a part of our human nature. Indeed, evolutionary psychology was at play making man as a social creature responding and interacting with his fellow man, inculcating the "golden rule" as a survival enhancing trait, tens of thousands of years before man could even think up of a god that created the heavens and the earth, and that told him how to behave. Indeed, these rules of behavior cross all religions and philosophies to a certain degree. Ayn Rand's view on "selfishness" as a philosophic underpinning to objectivist philosophy was prescient in this regard, although the unfortunate simplistic interpretation given to her specific use of this term vilified her philosophy and helped prevent its serious consideration by most academic institutions. Singer correctly points out that the dogmatic constraint Judeo-Christian philosophy places on us (i.e. the sanctity of human life) prevents most of us from opening our minds to rational discussion when it comes to life and death decisions. His well-reasoned and compelling presentation of abortion, infanticide and euthanasia was the highlight of this collection of essays, and begs for broader public discussion of these issues before we descend into the Dark Ages again. His arguments against "speciesism", the term he uses to describe man's discrimination against and maltreatment of other forms of conscious life (non-human animals), contradicts his own foundation for human abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. He rightly feels that our ability to reason should help us to derive a generally accepted ethical code which allows us to make choices as individuals (and specifically not as a collective) about life and death decisions of "significant others" in our lives (such as an unborn child with Down's syndrome in the case of abortion, a child of our own born without a brain (anencephaly) in the case of infanticide, or a parent who is about to die painfully and wants his/her life ended sooner in the case of euthanasia). But if we use human life (or the potential for human life) as the standard of value for a moral philosophy (Ayn Rand's "man qua man") and we as individual human beings are allowed to be responsible for the important foregoing decisions in human life, why would it make sense to not control other "less human" forms of life? We humans are at the top of the heap of life forms on this planet; not the sheep or chimpanzees. As humans we can influence our fellow man to appreciate the nonfood value of other forms of animal life and of the natural world in general, and in this way help to save our biodiversity. Others of us can become vegetarians (as Singer has done) or donate money to causes which preserve natural habitats and create sanctuaries for animals. A healthy respect for animals should be taught by example. Cruelty to animals should be condemned. I recommend this book to all those with an interest in understanding the ethical issues involved in abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. It is probably a good introduction to Singer's other works, since he presumably took some of his best writing from those works. I would beware of the underlying utilitarian philosophic pragmatism lest we run down the road to serfdom and give up our individual liberty.

This book was perhaps the most lucid, convincing philosophical work I have ever read. It's arguments are broad and invigoratingly relevant. It radically changed how I live my life in three major ways: -I am now a vegetarian with vegan ambitions -I have pledged to donate at least 30% of my life's income to developing countries -I have changed my career path to concentrate on global human health

It was required readings for philosophical discussions at our church (Socratic Cafe). Something very new for me so this type of reading will take some getting use to.

I was interested in animal liberation but now I have learned about other very interesting subjects which are as well very important in our life.

another excellent book from peter singer. always a pleasure to read good sense, well written. ranges across important issues about human values such as fear and honesty.