Nigel Warburton on... Peter Singer on animals

Peter Singer is a philosopher in the classical mode. What I mean by this is that he lives his philosophy. For him philosophical problems aren't games; they aren’t like a series of chess puzzles - they can and should change how we behave. He is also an extremely clear writer and thinker. I remember reading his book Practical Ethics when I was an undergraduate and being deeply impressed by it, partly because it was one of relatively few philosophy books that I felt I'd really understood  - another that, at the time, had a similar effect on me was Jonathan Glover's excellent Causing Death and Saving Lives. Indeed, between them, Peter Singer and Jonathan Glover were largely responsible for the renewal of interest in applied ethics that began in the 1970s and has gathered pace ever since. Whether you agree with his positions or not, Singer is undoubtedly one of the most influential philosophers alive today. I'm delighted that an interview with Peter Singer launches Ethics Bites.

Links

• Utilitarian.net: Peter Singer  - very useful links to many online resources
• Wikipedia entry on Peter Singer with many links

Further Reading

• Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, published by Pimilico
• Practical Ethics by Peter Singer, published by Cambridge University Press
• A Companion to Ethics edited by Peter Singer, published by Blackwell
• How Are We To Live? Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest by Peter Singer, published by Oxford University Press
• The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer with Jim Mason , published by Random House
• Singer and His Critics  edited by Dale Jamieson, published by Blackwell
• Animal Rights and Wrongs by Roger Scruton, published by Continuum