Peter Singer author photo
Image via Wikimedia Commons, sous licence CC BY 2.0.

Peter Singer

Né(e): July 06, 1946 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher renowned for his pioneering work in applied ethics, particularly in animal rights, bioethics, and effective altruism. His book Animal Liberation (1975) catalyzed the modern animal rights movement, and works like Practical Ethics and The Life You Can Save have significantly shaped contemporary debates about global poverty and moral responsibility.

Biographie et Parcours de l'Auteur

Peter Singer, born in 1946 in Melbourne to Austrian Jewish parents who escaped the Nazi annexation of Austria, grew up under the shadow of his family’s traumatic losses during the Holocaust. His early education took place at Scotch College in Melbourne, after which he attended the University of Melbourne, earning degrees in philosophy and history. He went on to pursue postgraduate studies at Oxford, where his intellectual development took a decisive turn when he encountered new arguments for vegetarianism and embraced it himself. While at Oxford, he completed a B.Phil. and began developing his lifelong commitment to practical ethics—a philosophical approach advocating for moral reasoning grounded in real-world issues over abstract theory.

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Citations

quote
All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals
-Animal Liberation
quote
If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans?
-Animal Liberation
quote
We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet—for the sake of hamburgers
-Animal Liberation
quote
Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity
-Practical Ethics
quote
Extreme poverty is not only a condition of unsatisfied material needs. It is often accompanied by a degrading state of powerlessness
-The Life You Can Save
quote
We should give equal consideration to the interests of all beings, all beings have interests, all can feel pain, irrespective of their species
-Animal Liberation
quote
We are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we could have prevented
-Writings on an Ethical Life
quote
Speciesism is an attitude of prejudice towards beings because they're not members of our species, so just as racism means that you're prejudiced against beings who are not members of your race and sexism means you're prejudiced against people of the other sex. So we humans tend to be speciesist in we think that any being that is a member of the species homo sapien just automatically has a higher moral status and is more important than any being that is a member of any other species, irrespective of the actual characteristics of those beings
-Interview on speciesism
quote
If you're lucky enough to live without want, it's a natural impulse to want to try and help others. But what's the most effective way to give?
-TED Talk: The Why and How of Effective Altruism
quote
The fact that they're not right in front of us, the fact, of course, that they're of a different nationality or race, none of that seems morally relevant to me
-TED Talk: The Why and How of Effective Altruism

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Voix de la Communauté

"Peter Singer is often described as the world’s most influential philosopher and one of its most controversial"

Goodreads

"Singer is the most famous and influential contemporary utilitarian philosopher"

Utilitarianism.net

"Peter Singer popularised the term 'speciesism' and argues for the equal consideration of human and non-human animal interests"

Wikipedia

"Peter Singer has been the leading advocate of animal rights from a rigorously argued and philosophically defined ethical perspective"

EBSCO

"Peter Singer is world famous for giving the impetus to the animal rights movement"

EGS – Division of Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought

"Singer helped launch the animal rights and effective altruism movements and contributed to the development of bioethics"

Goodreads

"Peter Singer is an Australian ethical and political philosopher best known for his work in bioethics and his advocacy of animal rights"

Britannica

"Peter Singer made groundbreaking contributions to animal welfare, bioethics, and effective altruism"

IAI TV

"In 2009, Peter Singer was named to Time magazine’s list of 'The 100 Most Influential People in the World."

EGS – Division of Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought

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