How Are We To Live?: Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest

Peter Singer, Random House Australia. Is there still anything to live for? Is anything worth pursuing, apart from money, love and caring for one's own family? 'Is there still anything to live for? Is anything worth pursuing, apart from money, love and caring for one's own family? . . . In this book I give one answer. It is as ancient as the dawn of philosophy, but as much needed in our circumstances today as it ever was before. The answer is that we can live an ethical life.' In How Are We to Live? Peter Singer suggests that people who take an ethical approach to life often escape from the trap of meaninglessness, finding a deeper satisfaction in what they are doing than people whose goals are narrower and more self-centred. He spells out what he means by an ethical approach to life, and shows that it can bring about significant and far-reaching changes to our lives.Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. He has taught at the University of Oxford, New York University, University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of California at Irvine, and the La Trobe University. He was the founding President of Animal Liberation (Victoria) and is now the President of the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Animal Societies, a peak body for animal welfare and animal rights organisations in Australia and New Zealand. He is the co-founder and President of The Great Ape Project, an international effort to obtain basic rights for chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. In 1994 Peter Singer was a candidate for the Australian Greens at a by-election for the House of Representatives, and gained 29% of the vote, an Australian record for the Greens. Peter Singer first became well known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation. His other books include Democracy and Disobedience; Practical Ethics; The Expanding Circle; Marx; Hegel; Animal Factories (with Jim Mason); The Reproduction Revolution (with Deane Wells); Should the Baby Live? (with Helga Kushe); How are We to Live?; and Rethinking Life and Death.…