This is made in philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

Philosophy bites is available at www

philosophy bites.com. Philosophy bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.

philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point is to change it.

So said Karl Marx, and the sentiment at least would be endorsed by the influential contemporary philosopher Peter Singer.

The Australian-born thinker, now based at Princeton, has spent his academic life imposing rigorous logic onto our moral landscape.

The results have been controversial and for many people disquieting.

Like Marx, Singer hasn't just set out to change the world, he's succeeded. He was one of the

founders of the animal liberation movement, for example. A recent book, The Life You Can Save,

insist that those of us living relatively affluent lives have an

obligation to do much more to help the lives of the poor.

Peter Singer, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Thank you, Nigel. It's good to be with you.

The topic we're going to focus on is the life... philosophy bites. Thank you, Nigel. It's good to be with you.

The topic we're going to focus on is the life you can save.

You've talked about this example of a child drowning in front of some passers-by, and it's obvious that the passers-by would if they were decent people try and save that

child.

But you use that example to argue that there's a parallel case with people in foreign countries who are dying of

starvation or lack of medical resources?

Yes, what I ask the reader to do is to imagine that they're actually passing by a shallow ornamental pond and they see a small child apparently drowning in that pond.

And they can easily pull the child out. There's no danger to them,

but they will ruin their favorite and quite expensive

...