Analysis Of Motivation And Justification By Peter Singer

Peter Singer enters a new section, entitled “Motivation and Justification”. Starting with chapter 7, he looks deep into the minds of altruists to figure out why they chose this type of lifestyle. What motivates these people to do so much for the sake of others (Singer, 2015, p.75)? The immediate answer Singer first throws out is love, but he later refutes it and proposes empathy as the prime motivation.
Empathy refers to “the ability to understand and share the feelings of others” (dictionary source). However, effective altruists are not drawn to the cause because of emotions. Instead, they are more concerned with maximizing the benefits with a limited amount of resources. In other words, effective altruists are very analytical and calculative
Effective altruists recognize that the worth of anyone is equal to their own and believe that everyone should work towards good (Singer, 2015 p. 82). Through this reasoning, effective altruists are not influence by strong emotions to help out a single, recognizable person, but are motivated to reach out to the most number of people as they can even if these people were to remain anonymous. Their minds operate so that they prioritize helping out more people rather than a smaller group (Singer, 2015, p.82). In short, in this chapter, Singer emphasizes that actions must be grounded in the reasoning of working for the good of as many people as
The main reason is that most people living in industrialized countries refuse to acknowledge the issue. They believe that lessening consumption will mean large sacrifices on their part, as they will forced to give up their comfortable way of life (Baltz, 1999, p. 214). This attitude shows that many are not willing to change their lifestyles, even if it means reducing inequality and suffering for thousands of people in developing countries. Effective altruists aim to work for the benefit of as many people as possible, especially of the poor in developing countries. Here, we can see that instead of recognizing that everyone deserves an equal share in the Earth’s resources, many consumers would rather prioritize themselves and protect their own interests at the cost of other people’s welfare.
In this chapter, Singer states that altruists are moved by reason and not empathy. However, I argue that empathy is needed to first comprehend the problem through the eyes of those who are oppressed. Only after understanding the real essence of an issue can reason be applied to work for the best course of action. In short, empathy is just as important as reason. In relation to my life, have I been showing empathy to others? Unfortunately, I admit that I have not done my best to truly grasp the hardships that many people are experiencing. In fact, I cannot even empathize with the people in my own