Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

PL EN


Journal

2006 | 39 | 72-86

Article title

PETER SINGER AND UTILITARIANISM

Authors

Title variants

Languages of publication

PL

Abstracts

EN
The paper argues that Peter Singer's argument for utilitarianism is a failure, and that repairing the argument requires learning from the lesson of Rousseau and Kant. It points out that, like Singer, Rousseau's argument for the social contract comes unstuck because he cannot keep together his self-interested starting point (natural man) and his civic-minded conclusion. It then shows that Kant solved Rousseau's problem by building his civic man back into his natural man, to give a morality-friendly conception of human nature - and that, to solve his problem, Singer must do something comparable. It is further argued that the problematic starting point in self-interest reflects the influence of (some form of) evolutionary naturalism in both thinkers - but that it is a mistake to suppose that evolutionary naturalism requires such a starting point. So Singer can amend his argument without betraying its spirit - but his preference utilitarian conclusion cannot be guaranteed to be immune to the effects of such amendments.

Contributors

author
  • S. Buckle, Australian Catholic University, Mt St Mary (Strathfield), 25A Barker Road, Strathfield NSW, Australia 2135

References

Document Type

Publication order reference

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier
08PLAAAA04428550

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.6a5c78db-5ea0-362e-b9a4-c04db404ee09
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.