I first encountered Singer's ideas a few years ago (before I became a Buddhist) when I was a postgraduate philosophy student in London studying his work on animals and ethics . It was groundbreaking and inspiring, and I agreed with everything he wrote about animals and our lack of respect and care for them when we treat them like food for humans. Soon after, I became vegetarian. So having the chance to meet and discuss these issues with Singer is like a personal dream come true.
After Singer became a vegetarian at Oxford University, he wrote what would become one of his most influential works, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (1975). In this groundbreaking book, Singer challenges the speciesism of humans killing animals for food, arguing that if we did the same thing to humans with a similar level of consciousness/sensitivity, people would object (and do) strongly. In 1999, after teaching at New York University, Singer became a professor at Princeton University. This appointment sparked protests from people who opposed his views on euthanasia. Some have called him a “dangerous philosopher.” In 2009, Singer wrote the first edition of The Life You Can Save to demonstrate why we should care about and help those living in extreme poverty globally, and how easy it is to improve and even save lives by giving effectively. In 2018, Singer also co-founded the open access Journal of Controversial Ideas. Now, almost 50 years later, Singer has released a revised version called Animal Liberation Now.
Singer also recently began a discussion of Buddhist ideas and ethics with a Taiwanese Buddhist nun, Venerable Shih Chao-hwei, in the publication of their new book, The Buddha and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build. a better world (Shambhala, 2024).
00:00:00 Presentation
00:03:15 Biographical context: a Jewish family in Austria fleeing the Nazi occupation
00:06:29 Maternal grandfather Oppenheim wrote an article with Sigmund Freud, murdered by the Nazis.
00:07:39 Impact of this on the study of ethics and philosophy?
0:09:51 Oxford University as a postgraduate student, Vietnam War activism and embrace of vegetarians and animal rights
0:13:03 Book Speciesism and animal liberation (1975)
0:14:50 Buddha, the first to argue against “speciesism” and the Buddhist perspective
0:16:17 Buddhist cultures/countries that eat meat and hypocrisy and lack of care for animals in world religions
0:17:29 The animal liberation controversy and the following reasoning on meat consumption, namely "lack of awareness/consciousness", to its logical and "scandalous" conclusion.
0:21:51 The gap between religious ideas, empathy for animals and daily diet
0:24:41 The “nonsense” of the 14th Dalai Lama (and others) eating animals for “health”
0:26:06 Parallels between the Nazi genocide and the animal genocide in mass industrial farming
0:28:51 The environmental impact of mass animal breeding and slaughter and climate change
0:31:09 /"If slaughterhouses had glass walls…./"Reasons why people continue to eat animals and possible ways to stop it, such as higher taxes
0:33:32 Essay on Famine, Affluence, and Morality and the “Drowning Child” Thought Experiment and the Ethical Obligation to Help Those in Need
0:39:05 The counterargument about closeness and the Buddhist idea of “idiotic compassion” that giving out of compassion is not enough to guarantee real help in the short or long term.
0:43:03 The Life You Can Save book and organization to encourage people to give
0:44:01 The Buddha's idea of tackling the roots of suffering and why giving alone does not eradicate it
0:45:49 Practical help is important even if it does not eliminate greed and the causes of extreme poverty.
0:47:46 The question of the “super-rich”
0:49:39 The Buddhist idea of eradicating the roots of extreme poverty and inequality such as greed and making this material excess socially shameful.
0:51:28 The new book The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Discussion with a Taiwanese Buddhist nun, Venerable Shih Chao-hwei
0:54:33 Parallels between the sexist objectification of women as "pieces of flesh" for consumption and the meat industry and radical activism on these issues
0:57:17 Venerable Shih Chao-hwei shakes up the rules in front of the 14th Dalai Lama
0:59:43 The changing role of women in religions and the feminist ideas of Buddha
1:00:56 AI and animal welfare
1:03:36 The psychological impact of mass factory farms on humans and the Buddha's teaching on not supporting poor livelihoods
Interview: April 25, 2024.
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