The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer

Author:Peter Singer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300180275
Publisher: Yale University Press

11

Are Some Causes Objectively Better than Others?

Let’s return to the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ leaflet “Finding Your Focus in Philanthropy.” After setting out the various categories in the manner described in the previous chapter, the leaflet asks, “What is the most urgent issue?” and answers by saying, “There’s obviously no objective answer to that question.” This is the wrong question to ask, but even if it were the right question, the answer would be wrong.

“What is the most urgent issue?” is not the right question to ask because a potential donor should be asking, “Where can I do the most good?” Consider my own situation, in 1972–73, when I wrote about two separate causes: global poverty, in “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” and the treatment of animals, in “Animal Liberation.”1 These were not the only issues around at the time—the Vietnam War was still being fought, and the threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union could not be ignored. I was already a vegetarian, had marched against the Vietnam War, and was donating to Oxfam. Where should I direct my time, energy, and whatever ability I might have to argue in favor of one of these causes? I didn’t try to answer that question by thinking about which issue is the most urgent in the sense of Which issue is most in need of immediate action? or even Which issue is it most important to resolve?, but by thinking about where I could make the most difference. And that, I decided, was the issue of animal suffering because whereas there were many highly able people already campaigning and writing about global poverty, the Vietnam War, and nuclear disarmament, very few thoughtful people were advocating a radical change in the moral status of animals. There was an animal welfare movement, but it was mostly concerned with cruelty to dogs and cats and horses; only a minuscule amount of attention was going to farm animals, where the overwhelming majority of the suffering humans inflict on animals was, and still is, occurring.

For a contemporary example of a similar situation, compare climate change and malaria. On the basis of what the overwhelming majority of scientists in the relevant fields tell us, the need for an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is extremely urgent. There are, however, already many governments and organizations working toward getting such an agreement. It is difficult for private donors to be confident that anything they can do will make that agreement more likely. In contrast, distributing mosquito nets to protect children from malaria is, at least from a global perspective, less urgent, but individuals can more easily make a difference to the number of nets distributed. So we should be asking not What is most urgent? but Where can I have the biggest positive impact? That means not just the biggest impact right now or this month or this year, but over the longest period for which it is possible to foresee the consequences of my actions.

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