There may be a greater need to defend the second implication of my principle—that the fact that there are millions of other people in the same position, in respect to the Bengali refugees, as I am, does not make the situation significantly different from a situation in which I am the only person who can prevent something very bad from occurring. Again, of course, I admit that there is a psychological difference between the cases; one feels less guilty about doing nothing if one can point to others, similarly placed, who have also done nothing. Yet this can make no real difference to our moral obligations. Should I consider that I am less obliged to pull the drowning child out of the pond if on looking around I see other people, no further away than I am, who have also noticed the child but are doing nothing? One has only to ask this question to see the absurdity of the view that numbers lessen obligation. It is a view that is an ideal excuse for inactivity; unfortunately most of the major evils—poverty, overpopulation, pollution—are problems in which everyone is almost equally involved. (1972, page 232)
Prompt: Write a short paper—approximately 4 pages double-spaced—where you do all of the following:
A) Explain the context in which the paragraph above appears. (What’s Singer’s conclusion and main argument in the paper?)
B) Explain the argument contained in the paragraph above. Here you should make sure you i) explain how the paragraph above relates to the main argument in the paper, ii) explain the argument itself; and iii) reconstruct in numbered premise/conclusion format the argument contained in the paragraph above.
C) Evaluate the argument. (Do you agree with all the premises? Why? Why not?)
Due Date: Submit it by 11:59pm on October 10th.
How: Submit it through Blackboard/Turnitin.
Header: Include a header at the top of your paper. The header must include i) your SUID and ii) a word count. It should not include your name.
Format: Double spaced, 12pt size, any legible font.
Some tips
Singer’s main argument in ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’ can be reconstructed as follows: Reconstruction of Singer’s main argument: ‘argument from weaker principle’ on slides Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are very bad.
(2) If it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it.
(3) It is in our power to prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, without sacrificing anything morally significant.
Therefore,
(4) We ought, morally, to prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical
care. (If we don’t donate significant amounts, we’ll be doing something morally wrong.)
When arguing for the principle expressed in premise (2), Singer appeals to his famous Drowning Child case.
Drowning Child “An application of this principle would be as follows: if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing.’’ (page 231)
Tip: Task (A) above requires that Singer’s argument is explained. Make sure you identify in Singer’s own text the main moves reconstructed above. This includes at least briefly explaining the role of the Drowning Child case in Singer’s main argument. (This is important because a modified ‘drowning child’ case appears in the ‘prompt paragraph’ too.)
Singer observes that there are two important implications of the principle in (2*). The second implication is this:
Second Implication of Principle (2*): “the principle makes no distinction between cases in which I am the only person who could possibly do anything and cases in which I am just one among millions in the same position.” (1972, page 232)
Tip: It’s this ‘second implication’ the one Singer refers to in the Prompt Paragraph above. This is important to explain how the ‘prompt paragraph’ relates to Singer’s main argument. (See task B)
Sample Solution