Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian philosopher, currently a professor of philosophy at Princeton University. Singer is generally regarded as one the most influential living philosophers, and has been a key figure behind both the animal welfare and the effective altruism movements.
Singer is the recipient of the 2021 Berggruen Prize, sometimes described as “the Nobel Prize for philosophy”. The committee praised Singer for reinvigorating utilitarianism both within academia and as a force in the world.[1] Singer announced that he would donate half of the $1 million prize to The Life You Can Save, with the remainder split in a roughly 2:1 ratio between organizations recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators chosen by Singer and organizations recommended by The Life You Can Save chosen by the public on a vote to be held in late 2021.[2]
Further reading
Galef, Julia (2013) Being a utilitarian in the real world (Peter Singer), Rationally Speaking, November 24.
MacAskill, William & Darius Meissner (2020) Peter Singer, Utilitarianism.
Piper, Kelsey (2020) What philosopher Peter Singer has learned in 45 years of advocating for animals, Vox, October 27.
Righetti, Luca & Moorhouse, Fin (2020) Peter Singer on speciesism, lockdown ethics, and controversial ideas, Hear This Idea, December 6.
Schultz, Bart (2013) Peter Singer, in James E. Crimmins (ed.) The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism, London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 509–514.
Wiblin, Robert, Arden Koehler & Keiran Harris (2019) Peter Singer on being provocative, EA, how his moral views have changed, & rescuing children drowning in ponds, 80,000 Hours, December 5.
External links
Peter Singer. Official website.
Related entries
demandingness of morality | farmed animal welfare | global poverty | The Life You Can Save | The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty
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Schuessler, Jennifer (2021) Peter Singer Wins $1 Million Berggruen Prize, The New York Times, September 7.
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Singer, Peter (2021) How to give away a million dollars, Project Syndicate, September 7.