Interesting, not that I agree with all of it. Pretty easy to read, thankfully, and clear.Edit on reread: I can understand why this book gets some pretty extreme reactions, now I've read it straight through like this. His view of ethics builds up throughout the book, too, so if you don't read all of it, if you read some of it out of context, then he sounds pretty awful.It also should, if you're properly thinking about it, make you wonder why our society -- globally -- is the way it is, if we clai...

Five stars for those interested in ethics. Practical Ethics covers a range of controversial ethical topics from a preference-utilitarian perspective. Personally I think he does a great job covering most of the topics while providing reason-based objective and impartial arguments on the topic. Chapter 5 "To take lives: Animals" is perhaps the one that I felt less satisfied with. Singer exposes both existentially-focused and totally-focused view on the interests of beings that are and will be. The...

Of course this book is far from impartial. But it offer good and scrupulous arguments for his choices. The book is written in a very dry and unhelpfully, boring manner. Yet the content of the book is far from boring.I'm not going to write more on this review, my dog is barking at me to take him for a walk.

Haven't read in full- still confident in saying the text is painfully underwhelming: makes Mill seem well-spirited & subtle.Comments on Marxism make me despair that this guy wrote the OUP intro to it.

Read down in Savannah back in 2002; I picked up an archival copy back in 2004. Lots of good thinking here, but Singer's *way* too quick to consider something "conclusively demonstrated." I found his animal rights doctrine a particularly grotesque pill to swallow, and his arguments regarding abortion rather slipshod reasoning (although not so much as the roe v wade decision itself) -- I'm staunchly pro-choice, but certainly not due to Singer-style arguments. For that matter, the 700,000 Americans...

Offers lots of insight into issues in applied ethics, from euthanasia to climate change. Singer builds his positions using preference-based utilitarianism, which seeks to maximize individuals’ abilities to satisfy their preferences. I loved his discussion around harming potential persons and the ethics of killing animals! At times though, I felt like there was room for more engagement with real-world data and evidence (e.g., Kahneman’s studies on psychological preferences for minimizing sufferin...

[Utilitarian BS] drenched in pseudo-compassion. Absolutely revolting. I highly recommend reading his conversations with Harriet Mcbryde Johnson at the NYT. Singer is (arguably) one of the most *intellectually dangerous* living philosophers. His "ethics" are infectious and insidious in their saccharine self-righteousness. And to top it all off-he's a shit thinker! Where is the rigor?! To every edgelord giving this a 5---GAGF.

Practical Ethics was recommended to me by my ethics professor. She claimed that the book was the reason she became a vegetarian. Reading this book will be an eye-opening experience for many. The discussions tackle the biggest questions facing ethics. At what point should we consider a fetus a human being? What is the value of one human life compared to another? Why worry about saving the environment? A highlight of the text is that Singer starts with a simple question or example which you will i...

I picked up Peter Singer's book upon many describing it as a comprehensive introduction to applied ethics, and although I didn't agree with all of Peter Singer's moral judgments he has given me so many valuable tools to think about moral issues. The book has 12 chapters, that touch into topics of equality, equality for animals, killing animals, abortion, Euthanasia, income inequality, climate change, the environment, civil disobedience, and violence. I don't understand why Singer chose preferen...

Practical Ethics is a great book to start your journey in the complicated field of ethics, especially for a philosophy neophyte (such as I am). It has been written in a very accessible manner so you don't have to worry about your brain getting blown to smithereens by the complexity of the concepts or the dire nature of the commentary- characteristics that many who attempt to read philosophy have come to detest. For someone who hasn't read much on this subject, this book can shake many assumption...

notes to condense later:Chapter 1: About ethics-Argues that our moral intuitions are a product of natural selection. pg. 5 "We have inherited a set of moral intuitions from our ancestors. Now we need to work out which of them should be changed.-This latter bit seems a bit problematic to me. On what basis can we reason about/revise these intuitions without an appeal to a natural law? How do we go from an "is" to an "ought"?-Singer agrees that moral intuitions are subjective in the sense that they...

Practical Ethics is one of those books that authors cite all the time, but which I had never actually read**. In terms of discussing personal ethics in a humanist framework, there's nothing better than this book. Singer goes through the issues so clearly and yet conversationally, and also thoroughly addresses criticisms of and weaknesses in his arguments. However I was unprepared for Singer appearing to be in favour of euthanizing babies with Down syndrome and Myelomeningocele (spina bifida) (pp...

A little tip; when reading Singer, surrender your mind (and your whole self) to Singer. A lot of what he says will sit uncomfortably with your basic instinct and gut feeling (no matter how broad minded you thought yourself to be), yet his arguments are compelling. I’ve spent tremendous time try to rebut his arguments in my head. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in coming with any, let alone good ones. Not many books leave you with this conflicted feeling; I feel what you are saying is mistaken,

*I am presently homeless and can only use the public library's computers for a limited amount of time each day, so this review is probably going to be done piecemeally.One thing I had been wondering about Peter Singer for some time now is what his position is on meta-ethics. It is well know that he is a preference utilitarian, and he spends the bulk of his books discussing the application of that normative system. What I hadn't remembered from my previous reading of this book is that Singer lays...

I disagree with Singer's implicit premise that ethics can be systematized or rigorously examined with logic, but taken for what it is this book must be as good as it gets. His arguments are clear and consistent, although he does get a little ad hoc every now and then. Overall it could be useful as heuristics for when you're undecided about the morality of a certain action; but I don't think you can say any of this stuff is right or use it to argue against competing conceptions of ethics.update 2...

I even make peace with cockroaches after reading this book...

This is the kind of "humanist" BS that you are likely to find everyday on Facebook.

In this book, Singer, best known for his work on speciesm and Utilitarianism, explains how we can incorporate these values into our society. Singer sets out how each species and race is entirely equal and everything and everyone is entitled to the same amount of respect. Singer explains how equality has changed over time standing that 'Racist assumptions shared by most at the turn of the century are now totally unacceptable', The whole time saying that despite our biological differences our natu...

Peter Singer's Practical Ethics is a very considerate book. Singer's writings about equality, the ethical treatment of animals, and ending world poverty are best, it seems to me. I will reframe Singer's positions regarding these, not exactly as Singer put them, but being as charitable as possible as to what he was arguing for. Singer argues that among the varieties of conceptions of equality, we should choose equality of interests of persons (self-conscious rational creatures) and anything capab...

I've given Singer a pretty rough time but I admit now that I was mistaken. I had underestimated Singer as a thoughtful philosopher. This was book was very insightful, and much of it is compatible with other ethical traditions. This has made me want to read his other works, particularly the point of view of the universe dedicated to defending utilitarianism rather than simply applying it.