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Compare And Contrast Singer's Argument Against Utilitarianism

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Recommended: Concepts of utilitarianism

1. Singer’s argument states that if you can prevent suffering without sacrificing “too much” then it is wrong not to do so. You can prevent suffering without sacrificing “too much”. Therefore, it is wrong to keep your luxuries while others are starving, suffering etc. An objection to this argument is that “too much” is too general. The argument does not define too much and can differ from person to person. The same goes for suffering. The way a person’s suffering differs from person to person. 2. The principle of utility states that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and they are wrong as they tend to promote happiness and they are wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. A utilitarian would say …show more content…

The best argument against Utilitarianism is, If Utilitarianism is true then bearing false witness is right. Bearing false witness is never right, thus Utilitarianism is not true. 4. The Pope’s argument against abortion states that it is wrong to kill innocent humans. A fetus is an innocent human. Therefore Abortion is wrong. Warrens criticism to this argument is the word “human” is an ambiguous word; making the argument an equivocation. He states that there are 2 senses to the word human. A creature can be a human genetically by DNA or morally by “personhood” (consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated, communication, self-awareness). An example of equivocation is “Doritos are chip. Chips go into computers. Therefore Doritos go in computers. 5. The first formulation of the categorical imperative is Act only on that rule you can will to be a universal law. This formulation basically says that if you make an exception to a universal law such as lying for yourself, than it has to be an exception for everybody. For example lying to get something that you want. If you make that exception for yourself, then it is okay for everyone to lie in order to get what they want under the categorical imperative. This will lead to nobody believing what anybody

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While pointing out that it is much easier to ignore an appeal for money to help those you’ll never meet than to consign a child to death, Singer uses his utilitarian philosophy to deflect the argument, stating that “if the upshot of the American’s failure to donate the money is that one more kid dies… then it is, in some sense, just as bad as selling the kid to the organ peddlers.” This argument, however, can only be made while using false dilemmas. Singer also addresses a large criticism of his work, that one can’t decide moral issues by taking opinion polls. The argument to this reiterates how the audience would feel being in these situations. This argument is poor as it does not address how the entire article is based on how everyone feels about this particular subject.

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Due to this reason, Singer states that the fair donation argument fails and would not be enough to fix the problem. Now that we have an understanding of Singer’s beliefs, I can show how Singer would respond to the question given in the prompt. Peter would say that yes he should donate, but the small amounts he would be choosing to donate would be nowhere near the amount that he should be choosing to give. Singer would say that any money that he isn’t spending on necessities should be donated to help those in dire situations, and that not doing so is

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Singer attempts to close this gap with the age old question of ‘why don’t we give the riches’ money to the poor’. The essence of Singer’s argument is obviously end world poverty. Probably the strongest point made in Singer’s argument is the involvement of the whole world. By taking this money from those across the world eliminates the opportunity for indifference. To stand with indifference is to stand with the oppressor.

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