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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Portrait of Peter Singer
Peter Singer

1946 CE

UtilitarianContemporaryAustralian

Born Melbourne

He asked why we don't care about suffering just because it's far away, or caused by an animal. The question has never gone away.

Portrait of Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum

1947 CE

PoliticalContemporaryAmerican

Born New York

She argues that a just society must ask not only who has how much, but what people can actually do and be.

Connection

Peter Singer welfare answered with capabilities Martha Nussbaum — Nussbaum's list of what a person must be able to do and be is offered against the utilitarian habit of aggregating satisfaction, on the ground that a decent life is not a quantity that can be traded off.

Shared Ideas

HappinessEquality

Ideas

HappinessEquality
JusticeHappinessEqualityMoral Sentiments

Words

“If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.”

— Peter Singer

“The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

— Peter Singer

“Emotions are not just the fuel that powers the psychological mechanism of a reasoning creature, they are parts, highly complex and messy parts, of this creature's reasoning itself.”

— Martha Nussbaum

“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world — an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.”

— Martha Nussbaum

Key Moments

1975

Animal Liberation published

1999

Appointed to Princeton Bioethics Chair

1986 CE

The Fragility of Goodness

1995

Chicago appointment and the capabilities approach

Works

Animal Liberation

The Fragility of Goodness

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE