Analysis Of Singer Arguments For Solving World Poverty

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Devino Sinclair Philosophy 220 Professor Allen Research Paper 1 Introduction In this paper I will argue that Singers arguments for solving world poverty are unrealistic for most people, not just those people in a well-off nation as America. Singer’s arguments are based on a Utilitarian Philosophic point of view, where he believes and practices the morally expected acts of kindness to our fellowmen. He does this through donating most of his salary to charities and argues that we should strive to do the same, but digress and argues the grave challenge that we face in our decision to adopt his philosophy. He concludes that all humans, specifically us in America faces the predicament of how we should act as it relates to how much we give to suffering …show more content…

I believe personally that we as humans will serve ourselves first and foremost and based on our society we will make adaptations as we see fit according to our …show more content…

He parked one day close to a train track, coincidentally there was a run-away train coming in the direction of his expensive car. As you can imagine he would have been frantic to try and prevent this train from damaging his car, but he was too far away to drive his car out of the path of the train. He realized that in close vicinity there was also a child playing. He quickly came up with an idea to save his Bugatti, but it would be at the expense of the kid’s life. He unfortunately chose his retirement insurance and throws a switch to divert the train from his car into the path of the child who died after being hit by the run-away train. Singer argues that people oftentimes are face with similar dilemmas and surprisingly, we act in an egotistical way that benefits us. We may have been though by family and society that we should look out for others who can look out for themselves, but we somehow always serve our own interests. It is a great challenge to live a morally decent life as this means we will have to sacrifice a greater part of our wants all in the name of helping those who don’t have as much to survive on. He concedes that we are all in this situation and faces that quandary as to the best way to act without being

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