To be a person, you have to have a sense of yourself existing over time, and be able to think about what you want in the future. New born babies don't have that according to Singer. No doubt he read a psychology article once to that effect. Sometimes philosophers, unable to be stupid enough by themselves, have to borrow stupidities from other disciplines in order to achieve the maximum effect.
Aaron Kithcart says Singer is misunderstood. Judge for yourself.
Via Randy Barnett.
3 comments:
I'm interested in knowing whether or not you think Singer was actually misinterpretted.
Not really. I don't put human life on the same plane as animal life so I don't agree that infanticide is the same thing as killing animals for food, which is what you seem to be saying and what I interpret Singer as saying. I'm not sure that I believe that Singer believes what he is saying, though. I seem him more as a provacateur than a philosopher.
I agree with you that he presents a more provacative philosophy rather than one actually applicable to the real world, my concern was that Smith was completely misinterpreting Singer.
Regardless, I didn't say it before, but great blog!
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