Peter Singer

Philosopher

Journalists label Peter Singer as the “world’s most influential living philosopher” due to his work on the ethics of our treatment of animals, often credited as starting the modern animal rights movement, and of the influence his writing has had on development of effective altruism. He is also known for his controversial critique of the sanctity of life ethics in bioethics.

Several key figures in the animal movement say that Peter’s book Animal Liberation, first published in 1975, led them to get involved in the struggle to reduce the vast amount of suffering we inflict on animals. To that end, Peter co-founded the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia, the country’s largest and most effective animal organization. Peter and his wife Renata stopped eating meat in 1971.

He is the founder of The Life You Can Save, an organization based on his book of the same name. It aims to spread Peter’s ideas about why we should be doing much more to improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty, and how we can best do this.

Peter’s writings in this area include: the 1972 essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” in which he argues for donating to help the global poor; and two books that make the case for effective giving, The Life You Can Save (2009) and The Most Good You Can Do (2015).

Peter has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, Rethinking Life and Death, One World, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and The Point of View of the Universe (with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek). His writings have appeared in more than 25 languages.

Peter was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States, and Australia, in 1999 Peter became Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He is now only teaching at Princeton for the Fall semester.

Peter spends part of each year doing research and writing in Melbourne, so that he and Renata can spend time with their three daughters and four grandchildren. They also enjoy hiking, and Peter surfs.