PHIL 4 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Nationstates
12/4/17
● Peter singer
○ “famine , affluence, and morality” (1974)
● Bengal 1971
○ People are in desperate need of food, shelter, and medical care
■ 9 million refugees
■ Constant poverty, civil war, cyclone
○ Very few individuals have donates
○ Nation-states have given very little
■ Britain 14.8 million
● Vs. 275+ million to develop a concorde supersonic jet (project is
later abandoned)
● Since 1971
○ Famines and crises all over the globe
○ Many have origins in the social and political circumstances surrounding either
colonialism or decolonization
■ Un special committee exists to help ease this transition, but many
problems remain
○ Regardless of causes, there are people in desperate need of assistance
● Assumptions
○ Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, medical services are bad
○ Principle: if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without
sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, than we ought to do it
■ “Comparable moral importance” ⇒ for example, if you can save one
persons life at the expense of someone else is comparable but but saving
somet
● The basic argument
1. It is bad that other people suffer from lack of food, shelter, medical care
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing
anything of comparable moral importance, than you ought to do it
3. It is in your power to prevent, something bad from happening
4. The donation that is in your power
● Discussion of the prevention principle
○ Key factors - it’s the capacity to assist and the balance of moral significance
■ NOT proximity or distance
● Child drowning in front of you, or child dying of starvation 10,000
miles away
■ NOT dependent on the behavior of others
● Others around you aren't doing anything, you should save the
child
● Proximity
Document Summary
People are in desperate need of food, shelter, and medical care. Vs. 275+ million to develop a concorde supersonic jet (project is later abandoned) Famines and crises all over the globe. Many have origins in the social and political circumstances surrounding either colonialism or decolonization. Un special committee exists to help ease this transition, but many problems remain. Regardless of causes, there are people in desperate need of assistance. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, medical services are bad. Principle: if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, than we ought to do it. Comparable moral importance for example, if you can save one persons life at the expense of someone else is comparable but but saving somet. It is bad that other people suffer from lack of food, shelter, medical care.
