Practical Ethics

Practical Ethics
Cover of the 1980 edition
Author	Peter Singer
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Ethics
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Publication date	1979 (first edition) 1993 (second edition) 2011 (third edition)
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	395 (second edition)
ISBN	0-521-43971-X (second edition paperback)

Practical Ethics, a 1979 book by the moral philosopher Peter Singer, is an introduction to applied ethics.

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Summary

Singer analyzes, in detail, why and how beings' interests should be weighed. In his view, a being's interests should always be weighed according to that being's concrete properties, and not according to its belonging to some abstract group. Singer studies a number of ethical issues including race, sex, ability, species, abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, embryo experimentation, the moral status of animals, political violence, overseas aid, and whether we have an obligation to assist others. The 1993 second edition adds chapters on refugees, the environment, equality and disability, embryo experimentation, and the treatment of academics in Germany.^[1]^[2] A third edition published in 2011 omits the chapter on refugees, and contains a new chapter on climate change.^[3]

Reception

Practical Ethics is widely read and was described as "an excellent text for an introductory ethics course" by the philosopher John Martin Fischer.^[4] The philosopher James Rachels recommended the book "as an introduction centered on such practical issues as abortion, racism, and so forth."^[5] The philosopher Mylan Engel called the book "must reading for anyone interested in living an ethical life."^[6]

H. L. A. Hart's review of the first edition in The New York Review of Books was mixed. While writing that "The utility of this utilitarian's book to students of its subject can hardly be exaggerated", Hart also criticized Practical Ethics for philosophical inconsistency in its chapter on abortion. He argues that Singer insufficiently explains how preference and classical utilitarianism each view abortion, and does not bring out their differences.^[7]

References

^ "Review of Practical Ethics by Peter Singer". 2006-09-20. Retrieved 2009-05-22.
^ "Practical Ethics 2nd edition". Retrieved 2009-05-22.
^ "Cambridge University Press". Retrieved 2011-03-17.
^ Fischer, John Martin (1983). "Practical Ethics by Peter Singer". The Philosophical Review. 92 (2): 264–266. doi:10.2307/2184936. JSTOR 2184936. S2CID 239298359.
^ James Rachels (2003). The Elements of Moral Philosophy, Fourth Edition. p. 203.
^ Engel Jr., Mylan (2011). "Review of Practical Ethics, 3rd Edition by Peter Singer". The American Journal of Bioethics. 11 (12): 73–75. doi:10.1080/15265161.2011.626728. S2CID 57037141.
^ Hart, H.L.A. (15 May 1980). "Death and Utility". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 19 April 2021. Singer replies to Hart's review in The New York Review of Books (14 August 1980)[1].

v t e Ethics
Normative	Consequentialism Deontology Care Particularism Pragmatic Role Suffering-focused Utilitarianism Virtue
Applied	Animal Artificial intelligence Bio Business Discourse Engineering Environmental Legal Machine Meat eating Media Medical Nursing Professional Sexual Technology Terraforming Uncertain sentience
Meta	Absolutism Axiology Cognitivism Realism Naturalism Non-naturalism Subjectivism Ideal observer theory Divine command theory Constructivism Intuitionism Nihilism Non-cognitivism Emotivism Expressivism Quasi-realism Universal prescriptivism Rationalism Relativism Skepticism Universalism Value monism – Value pluralism
Schools	Buddhist Christian Confucian Epicurean Existentialist Feminist Islamic Jewish Kantian Rousseauian Stoic Tao
Concepts (index)	Authority Autonomy Common sense Compassion Conscience Consent Culture of life Dignity Double standard Duty Equality Etiquette Eudaimonia Family values Fidelity Free will Good and evil Good Evil Problem of evil Happiness Honour Ideal Immorality Justice Liberty Loyalty Moral courage Moral hierarchy Moral imperative Morality Norm Political freedom Rights Self-discipline Suffering Stewardship Sympathy Theodicy Trust Value Intrinsic Japan Western Vice Virtue Vow Wrong
Ethicists	Laozi Socrates Plato Aristotle Diogenes Valluvar Cicero Confucius Augustine Mencius Mozi Xunzi Aquinas Spinoza Hume Kant Hegel Schopenhauer Bentham Mill Kierkegaard Sidgwick Nietzsche Moore Barth Tillich Bonhoeffer Foot Rawls Dewey Williams Mackie Anscombe Frankena MacIntyre Hare Singer Parfit Nagel Adams Taylor Azurmendi Korsgaard Nussbaum
Works	After Virtue Animal Liberation Beyond Good and Evil Critique of Practical Reason Either/Or Elements of the Philosophy of Right Ethics (Moore) Ethics (Spinoza) Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals The Moral Landscape Nicomachean Ethics On the Genealogy of Morality Practical Ethics Principia Ethica A Theory of Justice The Theory of Moral Sentiments A Treatise of Human Nature Utilitarianism
Related	Axiology Casuistry Descriptive ethics Ethics in religion Evolutionary ethics History of ethics Ideology Moral psychology Philosophy of law Political philosophy Population ethics Secular ethics Social philosophy
Category

v t e Effective altruism
Concepts	Aid effectiveness Charity assessment Demandingness objection Disability-adjusted life year Disease burden Distributional cost-effectiveness analysis Earning to give Equal consideration of interests Longtermism Marginal utility Moral circle expansion Psychological barriers to effective altruism Quality-adjusted life year Utilitarianism Venture philanthropy
Key figures	Sam Bankman-Fried Liv Boeree Nick Bostrom Hilary Greaves Holden Karnofsky William MacAskill Dustin Moskovitz Yew-Kwang Ng Toby Ord Derek Parfit Peter Singer Cari Tuna Eliezer Yudkowsky
Organizations	80,000 Hours Against Malaria Foundation All-Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations Animal Charity Evaluators Animal Ethics Centre for Effective Altruism Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research Center for High Impact Philanthropy Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Development Media International Deworm the World Initiative Faunalytics Fistula Foundation Future of Humanity Institute Future of Life Institute Founders Pledge GiveDirectly GiveWell Giving What We Can Good Food Fund The Good Food Institute Good Ventures The Humane League Mercy for Animals Machine Intelligence Research Institute Malaria Consortium Nuclear Threat Initiative Open Philanthropy Our World in Data Raising for Effective Giving Sentience Institute Unlimit Health Wild Animal Initiative
Focus areas	Biotechnology risk Climate change Cultured meat Economic stability Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Global catastrophic risk Global health Global poverty Immigration reform Intensive animal farming Land use reform Life extension Malaria prevention Mass deworming Neglected tropical diseases Suffering risks Wild animal suffering
Literature	Doing Good Better The End of Animal Farming Famine, Affluence, and Morality The Life You Can Save Living High and Letting Die The Most Good You Can Do Practical Ethics The Precipice Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies What We Owe the Future
Events	Effective Altruism Global

This page was last edited on 9 January 2024, at 22:33

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	Germany

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Transcription

Summary

Reception

References

Further reading