The 10th Anniversary Edition The Life You Can Save: How to Do Your Part to End World Poverty is an updated version of the landmark book by the world-renowned philosopher Peter Singer. In it, Singer argues that living an ethical life should include devoting some of our resources to helping those less fortunate than ourselves, and it presents practical ways to help.
In The Life You Can Save, Singer makes the compelling case for the fact that our donations to effective charities make a dramatic difference in the lives of others without diminishing the quality of our own. “Most of us are absolutely certain that we wouldn’t hesitate to save a drowning child, and that we would do so at considerable cost to ourselves. Yet while thousands of children die each day, we spend money on things we take for granted and would hardly notice if they were not there. Is that wrong? If so, how far does our obligation to the poor go?” Together, these two questions are the driving force of The Life You Can Save.
Using ethical arguments, provocative thought experiments, illuminating examples, and case studies of charitable giving, Singer shows that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but ethically indefensible. He dissects and refutes perceived impediments to giving and provides a number of practical guidelines for making charitable contributions.
This book furthers Peter Singer’s urgent call to action and serves as a hopeful primer on the power of compassion, when mixed with rigorous investigation and careful reasoning, to lift others out of despair.
Learn how you can be part of the solution, doing good for others while adding fulfillment to your own life.
Table of Content
Foreword: “I’ve never looked at it that way before.” Michael Schur, Creator of The Good Place
Preface
THE ARGUMENT
1. Saving a Child
2. Is It Wrong Not to Help?
3. Common Objections to Giving
HUMAN NATURE
4. Why Don’t We Give More?
5. Creating a Culture of Giving
THE FACTS ABOUT AID
6. How Much Does It Cost to Save a Life, and How Can You
Tell Which Charities Do It Best?
7. Improving Aid
A NEW STANDARD FOR GIVING
8. Your Child and the Children of Others
9. Asking Too Much?
10. A Realistic Standard
What One Person Can Do
Afterword: From Contemplation to Action. Charlie Bresler, Executive Director of The Life You Can Save
Appendix: The Giving Scale
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the author
Peter Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of AnimalLiberation in 1975. In 2011 Time included Animal Liberation on its ‘All-TIME’ list of the
100 best nonfiction books published in English since the magazine began, in 1923. Singer
has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Practical
Ethics; The Expanding Circle; Rethinking Life and Death; Ethics into Action; The Life You
Can Save; The Most Good You Can Do; and, with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, The Point of
View of the Universe. His works have appeared in more than 25 languages.
Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of
Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States and
Australia, in 1999 he became Ira W. De Camp Professor of Bioethics in the University
Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Since 2005 he has combined his
Princeton appointment with the position of Laureate Professor at the University of
Melbourne, in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. He is married, with three
daughters and four grandchildren. His recreations include hiking and surfing. In 2012 he
was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation’s highest civic honor.
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