Famine, Affluence, and Morality

The essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” was first published by Peter Singer in 1972 in the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs. Singer had just completed his graduate studies at Oxford University, and was responding to weather- and war-related crises in Bangladesh that resulted in a large number of refugees lacking adequate food, housing, and medical attention. The essay is a critical examination of the obligations that both individuals and governments in wealthy nations have to alleviate suffering in poorer nations. This guide uses the reprint of the essay found in the book by the same name, published in 2016 by Oxford University Press.

Singer begins by the stating the facts of the crisis in Bangladesh, then asserting that rich nations could virtually make the problems disappear and choose not to. He calls for changing our ethical framework, writing that “the whole way we look at moral issues—our moral conceptual scheme—needs to be altered” (4).

Singer posits that all but a miniscule percentage of people would agree with the basic assumption that the suffering caused by the conditions facing Bangladeshis is bad. He then asserts that if we can stop something bad from occurring, “without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance,” we should do it (5-6).