Mar 17, 2009
Update on Peter Singer
As an update to Aeon Skoble's post below, I thought readers might be interested to see this interview of Singer with Steven Colbert on the Colbert Report:
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James Otteson - 3/17/2009
I take your point about the glibness, Aeon, even if I did find it pretty funny. One remark of Singer's that irritated me was when he claimed that most people who raise objections like those Colbert was raising do it only as subterfuges to justify their own selfishness. A nice rhetorical strategy: if you agree with me, you're nice; if you disagree with me, you're selfish.
Aeon J. Skoble - 3/17/2009
Maybe I'm just cranky this morning, but that struck me as glib. Colbert's schtick is funny, but in this case it just makes Singer look entirely too reasonable and any crititcisms of his position absurd. I kept waiting for Jon Stewart to show up and complain that they're not taking this seriously. I did, however, like the observation that the 22 bucks you'd have to pay for the book would be better spent on famine relief.
Bonus: that eagle figurine on the shelf visible behind Singer's head to the right, I had that exact figurine when I was a kid. Not sure whatever became of it.