The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Peter Singer on his ethical legacy

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Can we live a good life in a world where animals are factory farmed? Guest host Dylan Matthews talks with the world-famous ethicist Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation Now, the newly revised edition of his movement-founding 1975 work. They talk about the progress made by the animal rights movement — and the issues it still faces. Dylan also questions Singer on other aspects of his career as an outspoken popularizer of philosophy and ethics, including his positions on physician-assisted dying, abortion rights, and effective altruism.

Host: Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Guest: Peter Singer (@PeterSinger), Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University; author

References: 

  • Animal Liberation Now by Peter Singer (Harper Perennial; 2023), an updated version of Animal Liberation by Peter Singer (HarperCollins; 1975)
  • Peter Singer Live on Stage: tickets and more info
  • "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer (New York Review of Books, Apr. 5, 1973)
  • Unsanctifying Human Life: Essays on Ethics by Peter Singer (Wiley-Blackwell; 2002)
  • Practical Ethics by Peter Singer (Cambridge; 1979)
  • "Unspeakable Conversations" by Harriet McBryde Johnson (NYT Magazine; Feb. 16, 2003)
  • "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" by Peter Singer (Philosophy & Public Affairs, vol. 1 no. 3; Spring, 1972)
  • Giving What We Can
  • Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)
  • "Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself" by Kelsey Piper (Vox; Nov. 16, 2022)
  • The St. Petersburg Paradox
  • Henry Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (1874)
  • Moral Thinking by R.M. Hare (Oxford; 1982)
  • Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy by Bernard Williams (Harvard; 1986)


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    This episode was made by: 

    • Producer: Erikk Geannikis
    • Engineer: Patrick Boyd
    • Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall

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