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Articles

The Singer Revolution

Ethicist and animal rights advocate Peter Singer has faced public outrage over his views on infanticide and euthanasia. Richard Taylor explains why he regards Singer as the most important thinker of the present generation.

Peter Singer has emerged as the most important and influential philosopher of this generation and, with respect to philosophical ethics, of several generations. He has established the foundation for a revolution in ethics, which he considers inevitable because of the inconsistencies inherent in traditional approaches. These rest on the belief in the unique value of human life. Singer insists that this no longer works, and that ethics must be concerned, instead, with reducing suffering.

My purpose here is not to promote Singer’s ideas, for in fact our basic suppositions are quite different.

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