PHIL689 - Special Topics:

"The Work of Peter Singer"

Fall 2001 Texas A&M University
Gary Varner, Associate Professor of Philosophy

General description

Measured in terms of his influence on either academic philosophy or popular culture, Peter Singer is one of the most influential of living philosophers. His "popular" writings have inspired millions to activism of various kinds (from protesting various uses of non-human animals to protesting Singer's right to lecture publicly in Germany and his recent appointment to Princeton University). His professional work began during the emergence of "applied ethics" as a subdiscipline of philosophy and his works have a central place in almost all anthologies in the area.

In this seminar we will read his most widely discussed "popular" works: Animal Liberation and "Famine, Affluence, and Morality"), but also:

• one of the main works of his dissertation advisor, R.M. Hare (whose basic views in ethical theory have heavily shaped Singer's),

• a couple of Singer's earliest philosophical papers on fundamental questions in ethical theory,

• his later, more systematic treatment of applied ethics (in Practical Ethics), and

• numerous commentaries and critiques of Singer's work, most of them drawn from an anthology of new critical essays (Singer and His Critics, 2000), which includes substantial replies by Singer.

Below is a tentative list of textbooks and supplementary readings, plus a tentative characterization of the course requirements.

For more information, email gary@philosophy.tamu.edu.

Textbooks

1. R.M. Hare, Moral Thinking: Its Levels, Method, and Point (Oxford University Press, 1981).

2. Dale Jamieson, ed., Singer and His Critics (Blackwell, 2000).

3. Peter Singer, Animal Liberation, revised edition (Avon Books, 1990 [originally published in 1975]).

4. Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, second edition (Cambridge University Press, 1993 [originally published in 1979]).

Miscellaneous supplementary readings

1. Lockwood, Michael. "Singer on Killing and the Preference for Life," Inquiry 22, pp. 157-70.

2. Singer, Peter. 1972. "Is Act Utilitarianism Self-Defeating?" Philosophical Review 81 (January), pp. 94-104.

3. --------. 1972. "Famine, Affluence and Morality." Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (Spring), pp. 229-43.

4. --------. 1973. "The Triviality of the Debate over 'Is-Ought' and the Definition of 'Moral'," American Philosophical Quarterly 10, No. 1 (January, 1973), pp. 51-56.

5. --------. 1987. "Animal Liberation or Animal Rights?" The Monist 70 (January), pp. 3-14.

6. Specter, Michael. "The Dangerous Philosopher." The New Yorker, September 6, 1999, pp. 46-55.

Requirements

Students will be required to write at least four short papers which both briefly summarize the argument of an assigned reading and offer a carefully reasoned objection to that argument. These will be due one day prior to the class in which the reading in question is assigned.

In addition, students will be required to write a term paper on some philosophical aspect of Singer's work.