PHIL 1200 Chapter 12: Topic 1
15 May 2017
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William"s conclusion from looking at cases where people are forced to follow other peoples" plans for utilitarian considerations(cid:499) (cid:498) . (cid:499) An act is good in proportion to its increasing overall happiness. Bad in proportion to its decreasing overall happiness. Contrast between famine and poverty in developing nations and affluence in developed ones. There is plenty of food around for all humans on earth. So, the problem is distributing food and not producing it what is most troubling. Rich countries do not do much to help the poor ones and even more troubling. People in rich countries do not seem to be that concerned about this, at all. Reform our way of thinking about ethics and even perhaps, change our behaviour. Singer is going to use a utilitarian argument, taken to the extreme, to argue for his case. Starts with 2 principles/assumptions, they are supposed to intuitively valid.
