Peter Singer

Writing for PS since 2001
233 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. He is a co-author (with Shih Chao-Hwei) of The Buddhist and the Ethicist (Shambhala Publications, 2023).

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When Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?
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When Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?

May 9, 2024 Peter Singer rejects comparisons of the recent US campus protests to the actions of Nazi student groups in the 1930s.
Will Cambridge Support Free Speech?
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Will Cambridge Support Free Speech?

Apr 12, 2024 Peter Singer examines the university’s ongoing case against Nathan Cofnas, a research fellow who advocates “race realism.”
Does Religious Freedom Trump Animal Welfare?
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Does Religious Freedom Trump Animal Welfare?

Mar 14, 2024 Peter Singer assesses the European Court of Human Rights’ recent ruling on Belgian legislation regarding how meat may be produced.
The Competitive Edge of Doing Good

The Competitive Edge of Doing Good

Feb 8, 2024 Peter Singer explains why companies that donate 100% of their profits to effective charities often end up doing very well.
Killing Innocents in Israel and Gaza
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Killing Innocents in Israel and Gaza

Jan 5, 2024 Peter Singer says that while Israelis' desire for revenge for October 7 is not wrong, choosing to act on it is.

What Is Missing from the Inequality Debate

What Is Missing from the Inequality Debate

Oct 6, 2021 Peter Singer & Maciej Kuziemski show that no push for equality is complete without accounting for the needs of future generations and other species.

The Two Dark Sides of COVID-19
Mar 2, 2020

We are not trying to "smuggle" anything in -- it's obvious from our title that we are saying that there is a second "dark side" to COVID-19, and the text makes it clear that we think that animals ought to receive moral consideration. We don't know what you mean by "clean cut scientific arguments," but all policy recommendations must start from ethical premises.
- Charles Driver Mar 8, 2020
  
  Definitely, but you're mixing ethical premises that are, to at least some people, distinct -- one regarding the wellbeing of humans, the other regarding that of animals. Getting your foot in the door by leveraging current events and a widely accepted premise, only to then spring a less popular premise on people, might lead one to wonder to what extent the arguments genuinely concern the first premise / current events...
  - kim southwood Mar 9, 2020
    
    Humans do or don't make ethical choices based on their own observations. To encourage an ethical choice based on observations of the role of human/animal interaction in triggering the COVID-19 outbreak is useful. Those who disapprove of this article's ethical consideration might well label it as a "shrill animal activist manifesto" or as advancing "a less popular premise". For many it supports a deeply help ethical choice to advance pleasure rather than pain. The authors achieve this with a spotlight on cold, stark reality.
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- Tilly Vacher Mar 6, 2020
  
  Very well said Peter Singer. If my father, Jon Wynne-Tyson, were able he would say so too.
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The Migration Dilemma
Jul 8, 2018

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but I did not intend to suggest that Trump faces a moral dilemma. The moral dilemma is faced by his Democrat opponents. Even if net immigration to the US has declined, as it has in Europe, the Democrats cannot afford to allow Trump to succeed in branding them as soft on illegal immigration. That could cost them the election, and bring about the disaster of a second Trump term.
- Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu Jul 8, 2018
  
  Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Singer.
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- Peter Schaeffer Jul 8, 2018
  
  I guess "abolish ICE" is really a hard-line position on immigration. The Democrats (most of them) aren't "soft on immigration". They are way beyond "soft on immigration". They don't believe in the very idea of borders. Why should they? Immigrants provide the Democrats with cheap labor, cheap votes, cheap virtue-signaling, and a massive new constituency for expanding the welfare state. What's their not to like? What could possibly go wrong?
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Why Loving Our Animals Is Not Enough
Jun 11, 2018

Easy for you to say that the dog's suffering while you are at work is of little consequence. How does the dog feel about that? I think all suffering matters. So does joy, of course. The question is the balance between them, and whether it can be made more positive.
Crime and No Punishment for the Iraq War
Apr 8, 2018

Censored by whom?
- Petey Bee Apr 9, 2018
  
  By the moderation staff, I assume - the ones who filter out the incoherent ad-hominems and hate speech that every comment section on the internet attracts. They do a great job keeping this comment section civil, no disrespect to them.
  
  The article was about Blair contemplatnig a return to public life, and how his wealth of experience would be welcome. I suggested that the appropriate venue for his return would be the ICC. Reason being that he was instrumental to selling the Iraq War to the American public and especially to legislators and the business class. We love a nice English accent here, and G.W. Bush isn't the most convincing person, so Blair's role was indispensible.
  
  Whether the case for that war was outright fraud or extreme negligence is debatable. But at the time I had a hard time conceiving of a thought process that would justify rewarding either one. "Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs" wasn't working for me at that time.
  
  I can see how it is offensive to put the man's most significant legacy to the world in such a negative light. I was a little surprised that this all was controversial enough to cross the line. It's really ok, just an interesting marker of where "responsible discourse" lies.
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Countering Islamic Extremism
Mar 12, 2015

On the contrary, I have protested against NATO's failure to have sufficient respect for the lives of innocent civilians - see, eg, my Project Syndicate column "What Price an Afghan Life?" April 1, 2011.
But to say that ISIS have killed only a handful is clearly false. Just today the Iraqi forces that have re-taken Tikrit have uncovered mass graves containing the bodies of hundreds of soldiers massacred by ISIS at Camp Speicher.