"Singer Solution to World Poverty": Reading Check Flashcards
Who wrote “Singer Solution to World Poverty”?
Peter Singer
When was “Singer Solution to World Poverty” written?
1999
Who is Peter Singer?
An Australian philospher
What hypothetical scenario does Singer open the writin with?
Dora is a retired schoolteacher who works by writing letters for illiterate people. She gets the opportunity to get a thousand dollars if she gets a 9-year-old boy to an address she has been given. Once she gets the thousand dollars, she buys a television set. But, then she is informed that the boy will be killed and his organs sold for transplantation.
What is Singer’s purpose?
To convince those spending money on unnecessary luxuries to donate to poverty
Who is the intended audience in this essay?
Anyone who is able to donate money to organizations
What pathos is Singer trying to appeal to?
Guilt
What rhetorical device does Singer use when he offers the example of Bob’s Bugatti on the train tracks?
Analogy
What logical fallacy does Singer commit when he puts the audience into Bob and Dora’s feet?
False analogy
How does Singer commit hasty generalization?
When he simplifies the problem of world poverty down to the lack of donations; he fails to mention how weak political and economic structures, for instance, can lead to poverty
How does Singer commit either-or reasoning?
When he uses extremities and presents an unrealistically dire situation;
More specifically, in the Bob situation, he implies that if the reader does not donate, an innocent child will die;
Even more specifically, when he questions if there even is a moral distinction between a Brazilian who lets a child be killed or the average American who buys luxuries for themselves
How does Singer appeal to ethos?
When he refers to himself as “a utilitarian philosopher” and places himself in a position of moral “correctness”
How does Singer appeal to logos?
He uses statistics and numbers;
By Unger’s calculation, $200 would help a sickly 2-year-old transform into a healthy 6-year-old;
An American household that makes about $50,000 spends about $30,000 on necessities, so there is a remaining $20,000 for donation
What is the one difference Singer recognizes in his analogy of Bob?
That only Bob can save the child on tracks, but there are hundreds of millions of people who can give $200 to overseas aid organization
What organizations does Singer want his audience to donate to?
UNICEF and Oxfam America
