PHI 208 Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Famine, Affluence, and Morality
In Peter Singer’s 1972 post titled “Famine, Affluence and Morality”, he conveys that wealthy nations, for example the United States, has an ethical duty to contribute much a lot more than we do with regards to worldwide assistance for famine relief and/or other disasters or calamities which may happen. In this document, I will describe Singers objective in his work and give his argument with regards to this problem. I will describe 3 counter-arguments to Singer’s view which he tackles, and after that reveal Singer’s reactions to those counter-arguments. I will explain Singer’s idea of marginal utility and also differentiate how it pertains to his argument. I will compare how the ideas of duty and charity alter in his suggested world. To conclude, I will provide my own reaction about this problem supporting singer’s argument. Should wealthier nations have a moral duty to relieve poorer nations if a disastrous event were to happen? I think that we all must contribute in times of need even if this means substantially modifying the way in which we live for the objective of assisting other people so long as it doesn't cause us to suffer.
The primary objective of Singer’s post is to convey that we the folks have the capacity to assist men and women in need that is less lucky since it's our moral duty to do so. He uses the disaster in East Bengal for example. As per Singer, P. (1972), “Continuous poverty, a cyclone, and a civil war have turned a minimum of 9 million people into abandoned refugees; nonetheless, it's not beyond the capability of the wealthier countries to provide sufficient help to decrease further suffering to very small proportions” (pg. 229). He thinks that there's no reason at all for folks to suffer if other people have the capability to avoid it from happening. It’s our moral responsibility to