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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Lord Acton
Singer's essay is a summary of views he discusses in depth in Practical Ethics (1993, 2nd ed.) and Rethinking Life and Death (1996). Accordingly, I base my critique on those sources as well. Singer rejects "the traditional ethic of the sanctity of life [that] has been central to Jewish and Christian thinking for millennia. " He sees his own views as modern, scientific, and secular, and the views he opposes as traditional, unscientific, and religious. This leaves no room for the views of a person who regards himself as a devout Catholic, for example as Lord Acton regarded himself, but who nevertheless believes that "Morality must be set up apart from religion: for every religion in its turn has promoted its own cause by crimes. " Nor does it leave room for the person who regards himself as scientific and secular in his outlook, which is how I regard myself, yet whose reasoning leads him to views diametrically opposed to Singer's.
Singer characterizes his philosophical outlook as "consequentialist- utilitarian." He explains: "Consequentialists start not with moral rules but with goals. They assess actions by the extent to which they further these goals, " the main goal being "an increase in the happiness of all affected by it." Singer does not say whether his consequentialism rests on goals as intentions avowed by the actor or on the consequences of the actor's actions as observed and judged by others. This makes his whole argument problematic. For example, Singer treats foreign aid as apriori ameliorating pauperism. The evidence is that it aggravates it: "Money gifts save the poor man who gets them, but give longer life to pauperism in the country" (Acton).
In my view, Singer's ethical system is neither as novel nor as secular as he makes it appear. Actually, he presents a mixture of radical Christian egalitarianism, Marxist anti-capitalism, and therapeutic statism, couched in the rhetoric of epater les bourgeois (astound the conventional man). I should state at the outset that my critique of Singer's views rests on adherence to the ethics of classical liberalism, as articulated by Locke, Acton, Mises, and Hayek. From that viewpoint, the...