82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter
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Average rating4.3
Provocative essays on real-world ethical questions from the world's most influential philosopher Peter Singer is often described as the world's most influential philosopher. He is also one of its most controversial. The author of important books such as Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, and The Life You Can Save, he helped launch the animal rights and effective altruism movements and contributed to the development of bioethics. Now, in Ethics in the Real World, Singer shows that he is also a master at dissecting important current events in a few hundred words. In this book of brief essays, he applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness. Singer asks whether chimpanzees are people, smoking should be outlawed, or consensual sex between adult siblings should be decriminalized, and he reiterates his case against the idea that all human life is sacred, applying his arguments to some recent cases in the news. In addition, he explores, in an easily accessible form, some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as whether anything really matters and what is the value of the pale blue dot that is our planet. The collection also includes some more personal reflections, like Singer’s thoughts on one of his favorite activities, surfing, and an unusual suggestion for starting a family conversation over a holiday feast. Now with a new afterword by the author, this provocative and original book will challenge—and possibly change—your beliefs about many real-world ethical questions.
Reviews with the most likes.
Singer is a unicorn among philosophers: capable of writing coherently AND staking and supporting moral claims. There's really no else who can touch on topics like sex scandals and cheating in sports with the some analytical rigour and context as Singer does for his more notable work on the ethical treatment of animals.
You don't have to agree with his positions–meat, yum!–to appreciate that Singer's popular essays are the sort of thoughtful and contrarian writing that's ultimately worth your time compared to the partisan polemics or vacuous TED talks that usually stunt these topics.
Even though some ideas of Dr Singer can be considered radical/controversial majority of the essays tackled the reasonings logically and ethically. The bad point was that some of the essays weren't updated and so they don't balance out with the current economic, political situation well. Although it won't be the cup of tea for everyone I personally benefited a lot from this book. The latest edition of this book has 90 essays, the one I have read has 86 essays so I might have missed some but the essays were concise, interesting and highly readable. Recommended if you can tackle serious and solemn topics with open-mindedness.
3.75/5