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Famine, Affluence, and Morality

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Famine, Affluence, and Morality
PHI208
Daniel Beteta
March 25, 2013 Famine, Affluence, and Morality Giving to charity usually is viewed as a generous act, most people who give to charitable causes are held in high regard and thought of as good people, the question peter singer is asking us to consider in the article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” is where is the moral grey area between charity and obligation when it comes to giving up what we have for others. Who in society decides what is good but not wrong to not do as charity is considered. I can achieve this by looking at Singers arguments, counterarguments and concept of marginal utility while comparing how duty and charity change in the article. The article opens by detailing the famine East Bengal is experiencing in 1971 in details and lists the causes of the Famine, and the number of refugees that amounts to roughly 9 million. Then he lists the affluent nations who are doing basically nothing to help these people, the citizens are not donating or protesting and the governments even if giving to the relief are not doing enough. “Generally speaking, people have not given large sums to relief funds; they have not written to their parliamentary representatives demanding increased government assistance; they have not demonstrated in the streets, held symbolic fasts, or done anything else directed toward providing there refugees with the means to satisfy their essential needs.”(Singer, 1972)
From the start his first argument is that of the drowning child, he states that if he sees a drowning child is a shallow pond, his clothes may get muddy but he should save the child. The clothes would be insignificant but the death would be a very bad thing, Singer proposes that it should be no different to help a neighbor or a person 1,000 miles away, because their distance from one does nothing to lessen their

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