Peter Singer on Thinking and the Meaning of Philosophy

“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”

-- Peter Singer

(Featured image sourced from Monash University.)

Peter Singer's Biography

Peter Albert David Singer, B.Phil. (graduate degree in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, England), is a renown Australian-born Jewish philosopher born on July 6th 1946. For over thirty years he has challenged traditional notions of applied ethics. He is world famous for giving the impetus to the animal rights movement. Today he holds the chair of ethics at Princeton University. Singer has also held twice the chair of philosophy in his native land at Monash University where he also founded the Centre for Human Bioethics. Peter Singer is a rationalist philosopher in the Anglo-American tradition of utilitarianism. He teaches “practical ethics”, which he defines as the application of a morality to practical problems based on philosophical thinking rather than on religious beliefs. In 2009 Singer would make it to the Time magazine list of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World”.

(Biography sourced from The European Graduate School.)

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