Singer’s Practical Ethics

Singer’s Practical Ethics

St. Augustine once stated, “The superfluities of the rich are the

necessities of the poor. When you possess in excess, you possess what

belongs to the poor” (Church 3). This quotation expresses that the

less fortunate in our world deserve to own a part of all the excess

luxuries that are owned by the more wealthy people. Therefore,

anything beyond the necessities of life can be considered something

that the poor should retain. This idea is very similar to that of

Peter Singer, who contends that the injustice of people who live in

abundance while others starve is morally inexcusable. He argues that

anyone who is able to aid the poor ought to donate in order to help

the crisis of world poverty and similar endeavors. Singer explains

that if one is already living comfortably, the act of acquiring

luxuries to increase pleasure does not entail the same moral

importance as saving someone’s life. Since he is a utilitarian, he

judges whether acts are right or wrong based on the consequences the

action brings. Therefore, if the consequence of the wealthy people’s

failure to donate money is that another poor person dies, then that is

just as bad as killing them, since they are consciously letting them

die. In his work, Practical Ethics, Singer offers his thoughts about

one’s obligations to world poverty and suggests what must be done to

fix this dilemma. He questions whether it is ethical for people to

live a life of luxury while they allow others to barely survive, or

even die.

In the world today, there are two extremes of world poverty: absolute

affluence and absolute poverty. The basic definition ...

... middle of paper ...

...h is distributed in the

world. There is no reason why some people should lead such luxurious

lives, while worrying about nonessential lavishness, as opposed to

one’s survival like those in absolute poverty do. As people who live

in a country of absolute affluence, we are all in the situation where

we can choose between sacrificing our luxuries to save a child versus

living in excess and allowing the poor to die. What if everything

that we take for granted was removed from our lives? We would then

live day to day as a means to survive, and only then would we truly

understand the lives of those in absolute poverty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Denny, Father Jack. “The Church in Action.” Received in Theology

class on April 1, 2004.

Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University

Press, 1993.