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Rescuing Ourselves from The Pond Analogy

Peter Singer famously argues that when we spend money on seemingly ordinary pleasures for ourselves, we are doing something gravely wrong. In the process, he (famously) draws an analogy between spending money in such ways and not saving a child drowning in a pond when you could easily do so. There have been many responses to Singer. Some of these make potentially important points and might give grounds for rejecting Singer’s principles. But what they do not do, we argue, is respond effectively to the Pond Analogy and the argument it itself gives for Singer’s conclusion. This reveals that Singer’s focus on deriving his conclusion from general principles is a mistake; the hard-to-resist argument is the Pond Analogy itself. More broadly, we show that the Pond Analogy presents a crucial challenge to our ability to give a plausible, coherent conception of morality. We close by sketching our answer to it.

► this event is in-person at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin building, room 200)

Julia Nefsky and Sergio Tenenbaum                                     Philosophy, University of Toronto

Fri, Mar 3, 2023
02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin