Revision of Singer’s basic argument on poverty

Abstract

Peter Singer has devoted much of his work to reflecting on the moral obligation we have towards people living in extreme poverty. His first article on that issue was «Famine, Affluence and Morality», published in 1972. In that article, Singer already presents his ‘basic argument’ on poverty. The same argument is also found forty-seven years later in the 10th anniversary edition of his monographic work on the same issue: The Life You Can Save. This article analyses, discusses and revises Singer’s basic argument about poverty in order to make it clearer and more precise, and thus be able to carry out a philosophical discussion about it.