Living a meaningful and ethical life in the face of great need: Responding to Singer's The Most Good You Can Do
Peter Singer's work over the last 43 years, starting with 'Famine, Affluence, and Morality' (1972) up to his most recent book The Most Good You Can Do (2015) is aimed at redrawing the line between charity and duty and convincing people, especially affluent people, that they have (significant) obligations to aid the needy. We hardly need to be reminded that 1/7th of the world's population lives in conditions of extreme poverty, struggling to meet their most basic needs. Nor do we doubt claims such as those made by UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon that we are the first generation that can end poverty (Sachs 2005) But even individuals already convinced that there are (positive) duties to aid persons in need might seek further guidance to help them decide how they ought to live their lives given the great amount of poverty and suffering in the world and, In the Most Good You Can Do, Singer aims to provide this guidance. While I agree with Singer that we should be doing much more for the needy than we are currently doing, I am not convinced that the picture Singer paints of an ethical life that is, the life of an effective altruist is the life we ought to pursue. I do not dispute the fact that an effective altruist is living an ethical life but rather that the only way to live an ethical life is to be an effective altruist. In challenging the view Singer defends, I will sketch an alternative way of thinking about the following: (1) what it is to live an ethical life; and (2) what we should be doing to fulfill our duty to the needy, given that aiding the needy is an important part of living an ethical life.