Ethics in the Real World

82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter

By: Peter Singer

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Peter Singer is often described as the world's most influential philosopher. He is also one of its most controversial. The author of important books such as Animal Liberation and Practical Ethics, he helped launch the animal rights and effective altruism movements and contributed to the development of bioethics. Now, in Ethics in the Real World, Singer shows that he is also a master at dissecting important current events in a few hundred words.

In this book of brief essays, he applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness. Singer asks whether chimpanzees are people, smoking should be outlawed, or consensual sex between adult siblings should be decriminalized, and he reiterates his case against the idea that all human life is sacred, applying his arguments to some recent cases in the news. In addition, he explores, in an easily accessible form, some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as whether anything really matters and what is the value of the pale blue dot that is our planet.

©2016 Peter Singer (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Peter Singer is among the most vital moral voices of our time. He urges us to confront not only the question of what we should not do, but also the harder and larger questions of what we should do, and how much we owe to others." (Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning)

Short essay collection to make you think

It’s not a utilitarianism book. It’s a collection of essays from Peter Singer to make you think about hot topics. It’s pretty good and easy to listen. The narrator is good also. Peter is not as crazy as some people paint him. There’s an essay about the “controversial” meeting with disabled leaders and it was not controversial at all.

Ethics for the real world which we are living in right now

This book actually addresses things that are in our news and in our current history it's very interesting

Very interesting.

Gave me motivation for doing more good and also good advice on having a bigger impact overall.

Great Listen!

Singer makes some fascinating arguments. There's a lot of useful information in this book. I recommend 100 percent.

Ethics in real sense

Peter Singer is undoubtedly the most influential philosopher in today's world. Each essay presents the readers with objective arguments to support the claim. His arguments and conclusions are hard to refute and are very compelling. A must read for someone who loves pondering over things happening in this world. Not recommended for 'you live only once so anything goes' kind of people.