1 / 13

Affluence and morality

Affluence and morality. Human actions: a typology. From the perspective of ethics, actions may be divided into 3 categories: Permissible Non-permissible (forbidden) Obligatory. ‘Supererogatory’ actions.

aaron
Download Presentation

Affluence and morality

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Affluence and morality

  2. Human actions: a typology From the perspective of ethics, actions may be divided into 3 categories: • Permissible • Non-permissible (forbidden) • Obligatory

  3. ‘Supererogatory’ actions Supererogatory actions are a subset of permissible actions; they are those actions which are ‘beyond the call of duty’; it is laudable to do such actions but not reprehensible if not done. (Singer, 1972, p. 235)

  4. Some uncomfortable facts 2010: approx. 21000 children under 5 died daily of hunger. In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 child in 8 dies before the age of 5. (UNICEF)

  5. A sign of hope To feed a schoolchild in the developing world, it costs $0.25 per day ($50 per year). Enough food is grown each year to nourish the world’s population; it is the unequal distribution of food which causes starvation. (World Food Programme)

  6. Peter Singer Death by starvation is bad. If we can prevent something bad “without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” (Singer, 1972, p. 231) Who decides what is of “comparable moral importance”?

  7. Singer (cont.) Can we prevent death by starvation? (‘Ought implies can”).

  8. Singer and supererogatory actions For Singer, preventing people from starving (by giving money to charity) is not supererogatory; it is obligatory, and not preventing starvation is wrong (unless we thereby sacrifice something of at least equal moral importance).

  9. Moral excuses I ‘My duty to help is limited by the duty of others to help’. Shouldn’t everybody be giving an equal (and relatively modest) amount?

  10. Moral excuses II ‘Helping the world’s poor is the job of my government’. Overseas Development Aid statistics

  11. Moral excuses III ‘How do I know that charities will use the money effectively?’ http://www.givewell.net

  12. Singer and Pogge What is the main difference between Pogge’s Global Resource Dividend and Singer’s proposals?

  13. Does Peter Singer practice what he preaches?

More Related