Critical Analysis Of Peter Singer's “famine, Affluence, And Morality”

This paper will dive into Peter Singer's 'Famine, Affluence, and Morality” to demonstrate Singer and his position to relieving famine. First, an explanation of the article will give an idea of what Singer is arguing for, followed by, my position as well as potential objections to Singer's arguments. Singers begins the article 'Famine, Affluence, and Morality' by stating that suffering and death, that were taking place in East Bengal (1971) were avoidable. At that point in time, East Bengal was a victim of perpetual 'poverty, a cyclone, and a civil war'. First, Singer argues changes must be made to our 'moral conceptual scheme'. This belief leads into Singer's first premise: 'If it's in our power to prevent something bad from happening, then we ought to do so'. Upon making the statement, he shortly counters any current criticisms opposing this statement and proceeds to convince his view is correct. He demonstrates his principle by introducing factors such as 'proximity’ into his arguments, such as when comparing analogies he uses of a child drowning in a pond and saving unknown citizens of Bengali. This reveals the significance of factors such as 'proximity' and 'psychological difference' that influences our decision making.

Furthermore, Singer discusses two version of his principle and reveals a desire in the stronger interpretation 'by without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance” I mean without causing anything else comparably bad to happen, or doing something that is wrong in itself, or failing to promote some moral good, comparable in significance to the bad thing that we can prevent'. This form suggests that one should prevent something bad from happening until oneself would have nothing if given more, otherwise known as, 'marginal utility”. In addition, Singer makes two contrasts. First, he compares supererogatory and duty, second, comparing the conduct that is required and the conduct that is voluntarily based. Succeeding these distinctions are his opinion in favor of maximizing benefits that society can offer such as ‘happiness’, revealing his 'utilitarian' vision.

At first when I read the article, I agreed with singer in donating the money we use to buy latest fashion trends to famine relief. We should put significant efforts in relieving as well as preventing the development of famine because it's an undesirable circumstance. My disagreement began when he argued that we should give our money away until the point of marginal utility. I disagree because this reduces one's interest to work and achieve a level of education, in addition to many other negative effects. Furthermore, this would create an unfair handling of income. If we desire to rid global famine, everybody must give more money voluntarily. But, to donate voluntarily, one must have 'altruistic' behaviors, which posed to have multiple problems in the past which may hint further problems in the future if continuing with this idea. Another idea may be to educate foreign countries about agriculture and urban farming in addition to providing a capital to allow them to begin this development. This allows them to create a source of income by entering the market of agricultural products as a supplier all while having a sustainable food source. This conclusion, however, is overly simplified and does not take into account outside factors that may prevent agriculture from growing or even eradicate already grown crops, leading to an economic downfall. I believe, solutions to famine relief must be developed at a domestic level and supported internationally to ensure equity.

To summarize, Singer provides his view on preventing famine and poverty which I can agree with, to an extent. The ideas presented by Singer to relieve these issues may inflict further problems rather than doing good farther down the line. Though, through guided support, the problem on famine could be solved. Unfortunately, due to how society is already established itself, as well as unaccounted external factors that may come into play, the reality on solving this issue remains distant.