An unusual Australian Singer
Categories : Philosophy |
Looks like Triple J has gone highbrow. This morning as I drove to work, Adam and Wil on the breakfast show had a segment featuring world renowned ethicist and philosopher Peter Singer, an Australian who is now the Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University.
I vividly remember my ethics courses at medical school which strongly featured the theories of Peter Singer. Amongst other things he proposed ethical justification not only for euthanasia and abortion, but also for infanticide when a child is born with a severe disability. He also contended that a human baby is of no greater moral value than an animal. Needless to say none of us could really stomach these propositions, but it made for some lively discussions and debates in our ethics class.
Anyway Singer is an interesting guy to check out. There’s a great summary article about him here which gives a bit of a bio, synopsis of his theories and links to much more about him (and against him).
Although many of Singer’s theories are taking logic to extreme, it’s funny how often ethics reflects age old moral truths. On the radio today one of his arguments was that it was ethically unacceptable to give to charity if your primary motivation was to be noticed and thought well of by others. Does this remind anyone of Matt 6
?
“Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give a gift to someone in need, don’t shout about it as the hypocrites do - blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone, don’t tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.” ~ Matthew 6:1-4 (NLT)
Also on the wikipedia entry Singer proposes that well off people donate at least 10% of their income to those who are in poverty and starving. Once again very reminiscent of Christian principles of charity and the tithe.
True morality, which ever way you arrive at it, always has it’s basis in the principles established by God. It’s when you leave Him out of it that abberations of thinking like most of Singer’s work start to occur.
Very interesting stuff. It’s almost enough to make me want to dig out my old ethics book
- well maybe if I didn’t have about another dozen books waiting to be read on my shelf.
