The book Practical Ethics is an introduction to applied ethics written by modern bioethical philosopher Peter Singer. It was originally published in 1979 and has since been translated into a number of languages. The book caused outrage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The 1993 second edition has new chapters on refugees and the environment, and new sections on equality and disability, embryo experimentation, and the treatment of academics in Germany. A third edition of Practical Ethics was published in 2011. It doesn't have the chapter on refugees, and has a new chapter on climate change.
The work analyzes, in detail, why and how beings' interests should be weighed. He states that a being's interests should always be weighed according to that being's concrete properties, and not according to its belonging to some abstract group.
The book studies a number of ethical issues including: race, sex, ability, species, abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, embryo experimentation, status of animals, political violence, overseas aid, and obligation to assist others.
Famous quotes containing the words practical and/or ethics:
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Ethics and religion differ herein; that the one is the system of human duties commencing from man; the other, from God. Religion includes the personality of God; Ethics does not.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)