Joshua Greene

And part of why I expanded into science is I felt like if I have any shot at making a difference as a philosopher, I'm in a better position to do it as a philosopher scientist who can look at what's going on in our heads and say, this is what's happening.

And when you understand that, does that change our thinking about what's really right or wrong?

Well, so Peter Singer is known for many, a few things.

I mean, one of them is essentially being the philosophical grandfather of the animal rights movement.

So he wrote a book called Animal Liberation that came out in the 70s.

And it starts out in an interesting way.

He says, you know, people say, oh, you're writing a book about animal rights.

You must really love animals.

And he says, no, it's not about what I love or don't love or want to cuddle up with or play fetch with.

It's about whether or not animals suffer.

which was a point that Jeremy Bentham, the original utilitarian in the 18th century made.

And he sort of made the case that our practices, especially with factory farming, just can't be morally justified.

The other big thing that he did, and this is the thing that has probably had the most direct influence on my work, is his famous drowning child argument.

So you may have heard some version of this.

You're walking along and there's a pond and

and there is a child who is drowning in the pond, and you can wade in and save this child, but you're gonna ruin your fancy new shoes or suit or whatever it is, and it'll cost you some amount of money to replace them.

And if you ask people, is it okay to let the child drown because you don't wanna ruin your clothes, most people would say, no, that's terrible, that's monstrous.

Okay, and Peter Singer says, good, I agree.

And then he says, but there are children on the other side of the world who are drowning in poverty, who are badly in need of food and medicine, and for the price of the clothes that you're wearing,

You or you combined with a small number of other people can save someone's life.