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Peter Singer Argument Analysis

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In this day and age it is impossible to engage on social media, without being witness to, or involved in an argument. Following the largest mass shooting in our countries history this past weekend, I deliberately engaged in several arguments. Admittedly most of those arguments were driven out of emotion, rather than reason or even facts. Occasionally, the dialog would glean pearls of wisdom and new information steeped in data that made sense, swaying ones conventional wisdom about a topic. In general, assessing whether an argument is a good one based on subtle changes in how you feel about a topic is accurate but in reality the argument lacks true components of an academic argument. During our course we have pined over the arguments in …show more content…

In Peter Singers segment we hear his thoughts on ethics. He makes the argument that anyone would wade into a shallow pond to rescue a drowning girl, even if you were wearing expensive shoes. Then he explains how it is different from not purchasing the shoes, but donating the money to UNICEF to essentially achieve the same type of rescue or prevention of loss of life just through different means. This is definitely playing to the emotions because most people can easily imagine the terror of seeing someone drown. Lastly, the ethos is just the writers extensive study of the topic and general credibility among his peers which I believe in the world of academia, Peter Singer has just that. Peter Singer’s arguments are clear, persuasive and provocative. I, initially thought, Singer would be a Marxist, left leaning, Atheist who wouldn 't appeal to me in a way as to change my position or behavior. But after reading statements like, "Capitalism is a highly productive system, and although there are some aspects of it that I don 't like, we don 't have a workable economic system that produces better results." I find myself more fond of Singer and his thoughts on ethics. I also found his statements about Marx to be agreeable, so at the end of the day I have more in common with Singer than previously understood and for that reason, as well as all the elements listed above, I believe his argument to be an effective academic

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