Peter Singer
Modern Ethics · Oceania · born 1946
Australian ethicist who argues that distance and species should not limit our concern for suffering.
What it is
Peter Singer, born in Melbourne in 1946, is an Australian ethical and political philosopher, best known for his work in bioethics and as one of the intellectual founders of the modern animal rights movement. His parents were Jewish refugees from Vienna, and he studied at Melbourne and Oxford before teaching at Monash University and later at Princeton.
His work rests on utilitarianism, the view that actions are right or wrong depending on how far they promote happiness or prevent suffering. He applies it to animals, to world poverty, to the environment and to questions of life and death, and he has given much of his income to those causes.
The main ideas
- Against speciesism. In Animal Liberation (1975) he argued that a being's species should not decide how much its interests count. All beings that can suffer deserve to have their interests taken into account, and to think otherwise is a prejudice like racism or sexism.
- Distance does not matter. In an early article, Famine, Affluence, and Morality (1972), he argued that it makes no moral difference whether a person we can help is nearby or far away, and that affluent people have a duty to give.
- Duty and charity. On his argument the line between what one must do and what is merely good to do is weakened, since preventing great suffering at small cost becomes a duty.
- Effective altruism. He is considered one of the intellectual founders of effective altruism, the idea that people should give where it does the most good.
What it looks like in practice
Picture someone who would wade into a pond to save a child, and who is asked why they do not give the same money to save a child far away. Singer's argument is that the two cases are alike in what matters, so a person who accepts the first has a hard time rejecting the second. This is an illustration of the argument, not a quotation.
Books and moments
- Animal Liberation (1975) is his best-known book, on the moral status of animals.
- Famine, Affluence, and Morality (1972) is his early essay on duties to the distant poor.
- Practical Ethics applies utilitarian reasoning to a range of questions, from animals to life and death.
Questions and criticism
- Is speciesism like racism? The comparison is central to his argument and has been strongly criticised, and defended.
- Does his view of disability harm people with disabilities? In 1999 his appointment at Princeton was protested by activists for people with disabilities, who objected to his view that the active euthanasia of severely disabled infants can be morally permissible in some circumstances. He defends the view as following from his principles.
- Is the duty to give too demanding? If preventing suffering is a duty, it is asked how much a person must give up, and whether ordinary life is compatible with the answer.
Close neighbours
He stands in the utilitarian line of Bentham, Mill and Sidgwick, and Parfit is a contemporary who worked on related questions. The pages on Bentham, Mill, Sidgwick and Parfit show that line.
Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.
Where to start reading
Books by Peter Singer or about them, from the easiest way in to the harder ones.
- Practical Ethics Peter Singer
Covers belong to their publishers and are shown so you can recognise the book.
Philosophies they belong to or are close to
Who they connect to
Influenced by
- Derek Parfit · Singer has cited Parfit's arguments on impartial morality. (scholars disagree about this link)
- Henry Sidgwick · Singer's defence of impartial concern draws on Sidgwick's point of view of the universe.
- R. M. Hare · Singer studied under him at Oxford and called his teaching a model for how to argue in ethics.
Runs parallel to
- Tom Regan · Both made the case for the moral standing of animals in the same years, from different grounds.
Other Modern Ethics thinkers
- Immanuel Kant · 1724 to 1804
- Jeremy Bentham · 1748 to 1832
- John Stuart Mill · 1806 to 1873
- Harriet Taylor Mill · 1807 to 1858
- Henry Sidgwick · 1838 to 1900
- Isaiah Berlin · 1909 to 1997
- Martha Nussbaum · born 1947
Sources we used
- Peter Singer · Encyclopaedia Britannica, read on 9 October 2026
- Peter Singer · Wikipedia, read on 9 October 2026
- Animals and Ethics · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 9 October 2026
Read more elsewhere
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · long and detailed, written by specialists