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The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty (2009)

by Peter Singer(Favorite Author)

4 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1400067103 (ISBN13: 9781400067107)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Random House

review 1: Peter Singer strives to make a moral and philosophical argument for why we should give to the poorest of the poor. He profiles people in the 50% League (who give 50% of their income away) and makes compelling comparisons between our giving negligence and realistic situations in which we wouldn't fail to act, citing psychological phenomenon like futility thinking. With that beginning, I was expecting him to make a stronger case for giving in his conclusion. I know he is trying to convince people to give, and in that spirit didn't want to discourage people from giving at all by setting the standard too high. But his conclusion felt like a bit of a cop-out. And the book felt, at times, like an over-simplification of a very complicated subject. I would recommend reading When H... moreelping Hurts and Tracy Kidder's account of Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains, as supplements to reading this book.
review 2: Perhaps his much hyped New York Times Article was reaching the limits of it's impact, and so Singer decided to publish the arguments of the article in a lengthier and updated version with a pretty cover. With it's noble intentions the words in his book should then hope to be echoed once more to reach the hearts and minds of those the article missed. And although echoes can be boring and monotonous, in certain pressing cases - Global Poverty being one such case - they are needed. Most of the objections to Singer's assertions that I have read are simply atrocious, and although the pages convince thoroughly they might not rouse. Still, 'The Life You Can Save' is informative and acts as a practical (and maybe still ambitious) prod towards the alleviation of poverty through generosity. less

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Reviews (see all)

Yul08

I read this book by Peter Singer because I am currently taking a MOOC by the author on Practical Ethics. Much of the material of the class lectures is from the book so it was good to review the material in greater detail. Singer presents many arguments as to why people should do more to provide for life-saving help to the world's poorest citizens. He also goes over some of the reasons people choose not to donate. It is all very compelling. There is even information that can help people to decide how to determine which organizations can make to best (most effective) use of donations.

mbcp80

This is the rair book of philosophy that is both written for general reader and really tries to make an impact on people's ethical behavior. While one ca argue with some of Singer's points, it's impossible to read this this book stout being convinced we should be doing something more to elimate the worst of poverty around the globe. Singer also reviews in detail some of the most recent findings of behavioral ethics, but refuses to believe that that those normative statements of ethics (why we generally don't give more) are the limit of what we actually should do.

leblastick

Surprisingly persuasive.

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