Quotessence
Home / Books / Practical Ethics

Practical Ethics

Book by Peter Singer · 3 quotes · Ethics, Poverty, Views

Filter quotes by topic

AllEthicsPovertyViewsUtilitarianismViolenceAdverseAdverse EffectsAidsAmountAssumingBeliefBeliefs And ValuesBenefitsBirthCarCause PrioritizationChangeClimate ChangeConcernConcern For Others

Practical Ethics Quotes

“No doubt we instinctively prefer to help those who are close to us. Few could stand by and watch a child drown; many can ignore the avoidable deaths of children in Africa or India. The question, however, is not what we usually do, but what we ought to do, and it is difficult to see any sound moral justification for the view that distance, or community membership, makes a crucial difference to our obligations.”

PovertyEthicsUtilitarianism
Book:Practical Ethics
Create image

“At least ten times as many people died from preventable, poverty-related diseases on September 11, 2011, as died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on that black day. The terrorist attacks led to trillions of dollars being spent on the ‘war on terrorism’ and on security measures that have inconvenienced every air traveller since then. The deaths caused by poverty were ignored. So whereas very few people have died from terrorism since September 11, 2001, approximately 30,000 people died from poverty-related causes on September 12, 2001, and on every day between then and now, and will die tomorrow. Even when we consider larger events like the Asian tsunami of 2004, which killed approximately 230,000 people, or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed up to 200,000, we are still talking about numbers that represent just one week’s toll for preventable, poverty-related deaths — and that happens fifty-two weeks in every year.”

PovertyWar On TerrorExtreme PovertyCause Prioritization
Book:Practical Ethics
Create image