Peter Singer

Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secular, utilitarian perspective. His book Animal Liberation (1975) criticized intensive animal farming and speciesism, and shaped the animal rights movement. His essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" argues for the moral imperative of donating to help the global poor, using the drowning child analogy. For most of his career he was a preference utilitarian. He revealed in The Point of View of the Universe (2014), co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, that he had become a hedonistic utilitarian. His books The Life You Can Save (2009) and The Most Good You Can Do (2015) are influential in the effective altruism movement.

On two occasions, Singer served as chair of the philosophy department at Monash University, where he founded its Centre for Human Bioethics. In 1996, he stood unsuccessfully as a Greens candidate for the Australian Senate. In 2004, Singer was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. In 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald placed him among Australia's ten most influential public intellectuals. Singer is a co-founder of Animals Australia and the founder of the non-profit organisation The Life You Can Save.