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Books

How are we to Live? by Peter Singer

Michael Williams describes Peter Singer’s attempt to take the point of view of the universe.

When I studied philosophy as an undergraduate in the 1960s it was at an English university which had completely espoused the empirical/analytic approach. Whilst I enjoyed my studies greatly, I always felt that there was one question which no one was answering; the question was, “What is the meaning of Life?” When we asked our teachers to give us their answer to this question they either fell off their chairs laughing or looked at us as if we were mad. They told us that such questions were metaphysical and, because the metaphysical had been shown to be meaningless, it was therefore a non-question. Philosophy, they said, existed precisely to disinfect language of such questions altogether.

This response never satisfied me and I warm to Peter Singer’s book because he wants to resurrect that question and put it back at the heart of philosophy.

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