Peter Singer on Utilitarianism, Influence, and Controversial Ideas
Conversations with Tyler
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Peter Singer is a Hedonistic Utilitarian
Peter Singer has held different forms of utilitarianism in his career. He used to be a preference utilitarian, believing that the good to maximize is the satisfaction of preferences, including those of the dead. However, he was not entirely convinced of this idea. Now, Singer is a hedonistic utilitarian, which means he believes that the only reason to pay attention to the wishes of the dead is to give the living confidence that their own wishes will be respected. Singer also highlights the potential issue of population shrinkage and the accumulation of past preferences, suggesting that it could lead to significant problems in the future.
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