Ethics in the Real World: 90 Brief Essays on Things That Matter

“Also new in ethics books, there’s a “fully updated and expanded” version of Ethics in the Real World by Peter Singer, the Australian-American philosopher behind the effective altruism movement, one of our best philosophy books of 2016. These are short essays, mostly from Singer’s Project Syndicate column, addressing issues like: ‘Can Ethics Be Taught?’, ‘The Case for Going Vegan’ and ‘Why Google Was Wrong’ to fire James Damore for his comments about women in tech.” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction of Early Summer 2023

Sophie Roell, Journalist

“For me, Peter Singer is one of the best stylists alive in philosophy. Very few people realise this. People rarely remark on his writing style, but he is the most lucid of writers. He writes about complex matters very succinctly, very calmly, so that his writing is almost transparent to what he is saying. It is not flamboyant. It is almost invisible. He manages, in these essays, to address really deep questions in just two or three pages — often saying more than other people say in a whole book. He is controversial, of course. He’s a utilitarian thinker: he consistently emphasises that you should measure things by their consequences. He wants to make an impact on the world and has, for example, certain presuppositions about the importance of non-human, animal experience relative to human beings — assumptions that other people may not share. But whether or not you agree with him, it is very difficult to misunderstand him. His writing is so clear, and his arguments are so well expressed, that you can engage with him.” Read more...

Best Philosophy Books of 2016

Nigel Warburton, Philosopher