https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/peter-singer-is-committed-to-controversial-ideas Skip to main content The New Yorker * Newsletter To revisit this article, select My Account, then Close Alert Sign In Search * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On * Shop Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories Close Alert The New Yorker In Conversation * Esther Perel on Love * Fran Lebowitz on New York * Haruki Murakami on Writing * Samin Nosrat on Cooking The New Yorker Interview Peter Singer Is Committed to Controversial Ideas The philosopher of animal liberation and effective altruism considers cancellation, capitalism, and the pandemic. By Daniel A. Gross April 25, 2021 * * * * * Save this story for later. Portrait of philosopher Peter Singer sitting on a rock Photographs by Alana Holmberg for The New Yorker * * * * * Save this story for later. Peter Singer, the Australian philosopher, became a vegetarian in his mid-twenties, after a fellow Oxford graduate student told him, over a spaghetti lunch, about the brutality of factory farms. A few years later, in 1973, Singer proposed an essay called "Animal Liberation" to The New York Review of Books. Robert Silvers, the magazine's longtime editor, not only published it; he became a vegetarian, too. In 1975, Singer expanded the essay into a book, which has been translated into dozens of languages and helped inspire the modern animal-rights movement. Singer, who is seventy-four, is now the author of seventeen books and the editor or co-author of two dozen more. He has written about birth and death, Hegel and Marx, political philosophy and globalization, and many other topics. (He's just edited a new version of Apuleius' " The Golden Ass," a second-century Roman novel which, he told me, can be read as a "kind of adventure fiction." He explained, "The author clearly has some sympathy with animals.") Singer calls himself a consequentialist: he believes that actions should be judged by their consequences. His ideas about our ethical obligation to help people in extreme poverty, first expressed in his essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality," from 1972, and later in his book "The Life You Can Save," from 2009, are foundational to the effective-altruism movement, which encourages people in wealthy countries to donate large sums to charities that measurably improve the most lives. They have also influenced the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic campaign launched by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. Daniel A. Gross is a writer and radio producer in New York. More:PhilosophyEuthanasiaPeter SingerDiversityCapitalism The New Yorker Recommends What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Enter your e-mail address [ ] Sign up Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy. The New Yorker Sections * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On More * Customer Care * Shop The New Yorker * Buy Covers and Cartoons * Conde Nast Store * Digital Access * Newsletters * Jigsaw Puzzle * RSS * Site Map * About * Careers * Contact * F.A.Q. * Media Kit * Press * Accessibility Help * Conde Nast Spotlight (c) 2021 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Conde Nast. Ad Choices * * * * * Do Not Sell My Personal Info