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Books
The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer
Joel Marks critiques Peter Singer’s popular ethics.
The Most Good You Can Do is a marvelously provocative and intriguing book. We would expect no less from Peter Singer, who has been bringing out such books for forty years, at the rate of one per annum. He has become downright notorious for defending positions such as infanticide, euthanasia, sports doping, and bestiality, and yet anyone who has heard him speak can attest to his dispassionate, open-minded, and rational manner.
The key to Singer’s particular beliefs has always been his uncompromising espousal of the ethical philosophy called utilitarianism. Thus, his breakout book, Animal Liberation (1975), about the cause with which he is most identified, derived from his simply having taken utilitarianism seriously.
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