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Lunch with Peter Singer

One perk of working at The Economist is that interesting people come to lunch with us. Our guest yesterday in New York was Peter Singer, the Princeton philosopher best-known for his arguments in favour of animal rights, with which I agree; indeed, I find myself more pro-rights than Singer is. He takes it as read that we cannot equate the feelings of chickens, say, with those of humans. I agree that the comparison is a difficult one, but the very idea does not strike me as absurd.

Singer is a casual, grey-haired, friendly man with a willingness to indulge us in elementary discussions of his work which must remind him of a thousand first-year undergraduate classes. We talk about altruism. His arguments at this level are, for the most part, commonsensical: if you are in a position to help other people, then help them; and direct your help where it will have the most effect.

I counter that we cannot know where our help will do the most good. What if our foreign aid perpetuates dependence and poverty? What if I break into a clinic, rescue an experimental animal, and thereby alienate moderate supporters of the animal cause?

Singer believes that there are usually clear-cut decisions available. If you see a baby drowning in a pond, you pull it out. If you can restore a person's eyesight with a small donation to an eye clinic, then make the donation.

Singer said he was talking the previous day to officers of the New York Boys' Club, which tries to help disadvantaged youths in the city, He told them that they would do better to spend their money and efforts in Africa, where they could do a lot of good cheaply, rather than in New York, where they were doing a bit of good expensively. I wonder what they thought of that.