Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

One World Now: The Ethics of Globalization
One World Now: The Ethics of Globalization
One World Now: The Ethics of Globalization
Audiobook7 hours

One World Now: The Ethics of Globalization

Written by Peter Singer

Narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

One World Now seamlessly integrates major developments of the past decade into Peter Singer's classic text on the ethics of globalization, One World. Singer, often described as the world's most influential philosopher, here addresses such essential concerns as climate change, economic globalization, foreign aid, human rights, immigration, and the responsibility to protect people from genocide and crimes against humanity, whatever country they may be in. Every issue is considered from an ethical perspective. This thoughtful and important study poses bold challenges to narrow nationalistic views and offers valuable alternatives to the state-centric approach that continues to dominate ethics and international theory. Singer argues powerfully that we cannot solve the world's problems at a national level, and shows how we should build on developments that are already transcending national differences. This is an instructive and necessary work that confronts head-on both the perils and the potentials inherent in globalization.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 16, 2018
ISBN9781977388308
One World Now: The Ethics of Globalization
Author

Peter Singer

Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and laureate professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. The most prominent ethicist of our time, he is the author of more than twenty books, including Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, and The Life You Can Save. Singer divides his time between New York City and Melbourne, Australia.

More audiobooks from Peter Singer

Related to One World Now

Related audiobooks

Philosophy For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for One World Now

Rating: 3.709090872727273 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

55 ratings2 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book and an objective perspective on current global issues.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It seems super important to always consider the impact of what I'm doing on others. One of the things I'm becoming way too acutely aware of is that I can't just look at the people directly within my circle of influence but rather have to take a huge step back and think of global repercussions. We're constantly making industries viable or not by our purchasing decisions; every time we discard something we're potentially contaminating someone's drinking water; by being unaware of global happenings, we're possibly tacitly agreeing to our governments' international bullying... it's scary, really.The structure of this book makes a ton and a half of sense to me. There are four chapters: one atmosphere, one economy, one law, one community and those four areas pose important and sadly, sometimes conflicting ethical concerns. My favorite thing about the whole thing is that Singer doesn't hold back criticism of U.S. policy when it comes to all aspects of globalization. At the same time, he provides very clear, actionable ways for the country to become a much better world citizen.I'm a big proponent of encouraging local programs that provide services to those who most need them. This is one thing Yaw and I disagree on and interestingly, he tends to bring up similar arguments as Singer does to argue that allocating resources to those in greatest absolute need (as in the Seattle homeless youths are still way better off than the Sierra Leone refugee who has AIDS, five kids with malaria and whose leg got blown off by a land mine) is most important even if those people are tens of thousands of miles away. I follow the arguments and they definitely reach me in a number of ways, but I still stand by my approach: if I'm donating money I'll target programs that reach those in greatest absolute need, but I still place greater value in providing time and in-kind donations locally (and who knows, "locally" could become a village in Sierra Leone at some point). Maybe I'm selfish, but I feel I need some kind of fulfillment in return for sharing resources, and seeing someone benefit from my contribution is much more gratifying than reading a report stating that tuberculosis is killing N% fewer people a month this year as compared to last. Also, I'm living here. If I can better the community here by helping people get better education, by helping provide services for the homeless, whatever, I directly benefit because the people I interact with on a daily basis are on average more educated, less prone to violence, etc. Finally, it may be a naive delusion, but I believe there is some sort of ripple effect. If we all work to better our local communities there's a momentum that builds up and reaches out to neighboring communities and neighboring countries and so on."The thesis of this book is that how well we come through the era of globalization (perhaps whether we come through it at all) will depend on how we respond ethically to the idea that we live in one world. For the rich nations not to take a global ethical viewpoint has long been seriously morally wrong. Now it is also, in the long term, a danger to their security.""Today the overwhelming majority of nations in the world are united in the view that greenhouse gas emissions should be significantly reduced, and all the major industrial nations but one have committed themselves to doing something about this.""As the protests at meetings of the WTO, the World Bank and other international bodies continue -- from Seattle to Washington D.C., Prague, Melbourne, Quebec City, Gothenburg, Genoa, and New York -- genuine open-minded exploration of the crucial and difficult issues arising from globalization is losing out to partisan polemics, long in rhetoric and thin in substance, with each side speaking only to its own supporters who already know who the saints and sinners are. Endlessly repeated rituals of street theater do not provide opportunities for the kind of discussion that is needed.""If nations, once they join the WTO, can lose significant national sovereignty in important areas, and if they are under constant pressure to remain in the WTO, the view that the WTO is no threat to national sovereignty is simplistic.""We should reject moral relativism. A much better case against cultural imperialism can be made from the standpoint of a view of ethics that allows for the possibility of moral argument beyond the boundaries of one's own culture.""When subjected to the test of impartial assessment, there are few strong grounds for giving preference to the interests of one's fellow citizens, and none that can override the obligation that arises whenever we can, at little cost to ourselves, make an absolutely crucial difference to the well-being of another person in real need.""... in recent years the international effort to build a global community has been hampered by the repeated failure of the United States to play its part."