Blog 8

Original Quote:

If you are irreplaceable then you are doing good by their definition. “In equation form, Your Apparent Good Achieved minus the Good Your Counterfactual Replacement Would Have Achieved equals Your Actual Good Achieved” (Southan). I don’t agree with this idea of replaceability.

Revised Quote:

Southan says it more clearly as an equation. “In equation form, Your Apparent Good Achieved minus the Good Your Counterfactual Replacement Would Have Achieved equals Your Actual Good Achieved” (436). Southan is basically saying that in the EA’s eyes the actual good work that you do is what you can do above and beyond what somebody else in your position could have done.

Original Quote:

The EA base their ideology on Peter Singer’s thought experiment of the shallow pond analogy, in his book ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’. “Suppose you saw a child drowning in a pond: would you jump in and rescue her, even if you hadn’t pushed her in? Even if it meant ruining your clothes? It would be highly controversial to say ‘no’—and yet most of us manage to ignore those dying of poverty and preventable disease all over the world, though we could easily help them” (Southan). Singer brings up the point that our caring for other people is inconsistent and encourages us to dedicate our lives to ‘saving that drowning child’.

Revised Quote:

A well known moral philosopher Peter Singer published his thought experiment of the shallow pond analogy, in his book ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’ and Southan explains that the EA base their ideology on this thought experiment. “Suppose you saw a child drowning in a pond: would you jump in and rescue her, even if you hadn’t pushed her in? Even if it meant ruining your clothes? It would be highly controversial to say ‘no’—and yet most of us manage to ignore those dying of poverty and preventable disease all over the world, though we could easily help them” (435). The essence of Singer’s thought experiment is saying that if we would save a child drowning even if it meant a little bit of self-sacrifice, then why do we hesitate to help those ‘drowning’ because of poverty and disease? Singer brings up the point that our caring for other people is inconsistent and encourages us to dedicate our lives to ‘saving that drowning child’.