Peter Singer “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”
Read the following passage and do the following:
Reconstruct the premises and conclusion of the following argument? Is the argument logically valid? Are the premises of the argument true, why or why not?
Describe what role this passage plays in Peter Singers larger argument about our obligations to those who are suffering worldwide.
The fact that a person is physically near to us, so that we have personal contact with him, may make it more likely that we shall assist him, but this does not show that we ought to help him rather than another who happens to be further away. If we accept any principle of impartiality, universalizability, equality, or whatever, we cannot discriminate against someone merely because he is far away from us .”
