Review
------
Longlisted for the 2017 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel
Award for the Art of the Essay, Pen American Center
In his new book, Ethics in the Real World, Mr. Singer picks up
the topics of animal rights and poverty amelioration and runs
quite far with them. . . . This book is interesting because it
offers a chance to witness this influential thinker grapple with
more offbeat questions.---Dwight Garner, New York Times
A terrific recent book . . . that wrestles with how much we
should donate to charity, and whether wearing a $10,000 watch is
a sign of good taste, or of shallow narcissism.---Nicholas
Kristof, New York Times
Perhaps more than any modern philosopher, Peter Singer has
focused on the question of how to live a better life. If you want
a philosophy that can directly alleviate human and animal
suffering, read this wonderful book.---Sam Harris, author of the,
New York Times
Philosophy should be a more public endeavor, and Singer's work is
an excellent entry point. In a fall that will be shaped by a
political contest in many ways detached from genuinely pressing
moral issues, it might also serve as a refreshingly complex
source of ethical questioning.---Talya Zax, Forward
Singer demonstrates how to write pungently and succinctly about
moral philosophy.---Daniel Johnson, Standpoint
Inspiring and enlivening; each essay is an easily digested nugget
of acute, inventive reasoning and moral urgency, focused on
practical, achievable results and the resistance of lazy,
dogmatic thinking. . . . Any reader will find the book
accessible; every reader will find it both thought-provoking and
challenging.---Shane N. Glackin, Quarterly Review of Biology
Singer is a provocative, well-informed and hands-on philosopher,
with a lucid and engaging writing style. The collection provides
a comprehensive and accessible overview of themes that are
central to Singer's ethics. . . . His essays are well-structured,
engaging, and exemplarily clear. Moreover, his arguments tend to
be nuanced and non-dogmatic, in spite of his well-known ethical
agenda: here is an ethicist not looking for arguments to support
a preconceived conclusion, but sincerely pondering the
implications of his utilitarian stance."---Jeroen Hopster,
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics
"Peter Singer, one of the world's best-known and most significant
philosophers, addresses some profoundly important issues in this
book. He presents the issues and arguments with a lucidity,
accessibility, and sharpness reminiscent of Bertrand Russell,
another philosopher who sought to have a serious social impact.
Ethics in the Real World will undoubtedly be a force for the
good."--Bart Schultz, University of Chicago
"Peter Singer is among the most vital moral voices of our time.
He urges us to confront not only the question of what we should
not do, but also the harder and larger questions of what we
should do, and how much we owe to others."--Larissa MacFarquhar,
author of Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism,
Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help
From the Back Cover
-------------------
"Peter Singer is among the most vital moral voices of our time.
He urges us to confront not only the question of what we should
not do, but also the harder and larger questions of what we
should do, and how much we owe to others."--Larissa MacFarquhar,
author of Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism,
Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help
"Read this book. Every chapter will make you think. Some
hopefully will make you think differently."--Dean Karlan,
coauthor of More Than Good Intentions: Improving the Ways the
World's Poor Borrow, Save, Farm, Learn, and Stay y
"Peter Singer might well be the most important philosopher alive.
He is certainly one of the most enjoyable to read, and it's a joy
to browse through this collection of his smart short essays. This
is public philosophy at its best--clear, controversial, and
deeply rational."--Paul Bloom, author of Just Babies: The Origins
of Good and Evil
"Peter Singer has done more good for the world than any other
living philosopher, with ideas that have helped fight poverty,
transform medical ethics, and protect animals. In this collection
of popular essays, his intellect, courage, humanity, good sense,
and good humor shine through. This is practical philosophy at its
very best, stripped of all pretense and wisely applied to the
most important questions of our time."--Joshua Greene, author of
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them
"Peter Singer, one of the world's best-known and most significant
philosophers, addresses some profoundly important issues in this
book. He presents the issues and arguments with a lucidity,
accessibility, and sharpness reminiscent of Bertrand Russell,
another philosopher who sought to have a serious social impact.
Ethics in the Real World will undoubtedly be a force for the
good."--Bart Schultz, University of Chicago