Singer's Utilitarian Theory

1. Singer’s main thesis in the essay is that individuals living in affluent countries need to alter their moral standards with regards to helping others and/or giving to charity. Singer argues that charity as we currently know it should no longer be voluntary. Singer contends that charity should be a duty, from which individuals are morally bound to provide assistance to others, rather than a voluntary means of fulfilling the desire to help another individual. Singer contends that those living in the Western world are more concerned with material things and their own well being rather than the needs of individuals around the globe who are famine stricken and/or starving. I agree with Singer’s thesis in the fact that I believe that all
I think that Singers conclusion with the famine in India differs from the conclusion that a Utilitarian might reach with regards to the “The Truth about Torture” in several ways. The difference between torturing a terrorist to protect the masses is consistent with Utilitarian Theory. Although Singer’s conclusion does appear to deviate from Utilitarian Theory, it actually follows some utilitarian moral principles in the fact that human greed in the western world, which is immoral, appears to be one of the major factors in the people of India receiving little or no aid to end starvation in their country. The deviation from Utilitarian Theory with making the affluent masses less happy due to a lack of their personal luxuries also appears to be consistent with Utilitarian Theory on the moral grounds that suffering from lack of personal luxuries is not even comparable to suffering from starvation. Therefore, if you eliminate greed on the moral grounds of making it a duty to use your personal resources to help those in need rather than self pleasure, I think that it follows Utilitarian principles. I think that Singer’s conclusion reflects positively on the flexibility of the Utilitarian Theory. You can apply the principles of the Utilitarian Theory to similar situations and come up with different conclusions based on the flexibility of the moral fact patterns of each situation. The Utilitarian Theory can be adhered to in theory, but give the appearance that the conclusion of the facts is non-utilitarian, but in fact the decision was based upon utilitarian