Practical Ethics -- Political and Legal Philosophy

Author: (American) Peter Singer, translated by Liu Shen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Part of the "Political and Legal Philosophy" and "University Library" series, this collection selects and edits classic, significant works, textbooks, and anthologies of contemporary political and legal philosophy. It focuses on representative schools of contemporary Western thought, enabling Chinese readers to gain a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the overall picture of modern political and legal thought. It also includes influential representative works in the fields of politics, society, and law. When conditions are ripe, works reviewing representative Chinese political and legal philosophy will be published. This book, "Practical Ethics," by the renowned Australian and American philosopher Peter Singer, is one of the most influential works of philosophy and ethics in the contemporary era. Some scholars have listed it as one of the top 100 most important philosophical works in the world from ancient to modern times. Since its first publication in early 1979, the second edition in 1993 has undergone significant revisions and additions, and it has been reprinted almost every year, translated into about 10 languages. This book has not only had a significant impact on the global philosophical and ethical community but has also had a clear influence on practical ethics related to people's daily lives. Singer is an idealist but also a philosopher deeply concerned with reality. For decades, he has dedicated himself to eliminating world poverty, protecting the environment, improving the living conditions of animals, and promoting the legalization of voluntary euthanasia. He even ran for a seat in the Australian Senate as a member of the Green Party. His 1975 book "Animal Liberation" made an important philosophical contribution to the animal liberation movement. This book delves deeper into the fundamental issues of practical ethics, including the basic perspectives and focus of ethics, and critiques the limitations of traditional ethical views. He regards equality and respect as the core principle, demanding that this equality and respect not only break down the barriers and boundaries between people in terms of race, gender, age, nationality, etc., but should also be extended further to sentient life, thus closely linking with the ideas of animal liberation. The second English edition of this book adds two chapters and an explanation by Singer about his forced silence in Germany. The Chinese edition also includes a brief preface written by Singer for the Chinese version and an introduction to Singer written by Professor Huxman of the Philosophy Department at Rutgers University in the United States. Associate Professor Liu Shen of the Philosophy Department at Sichuan University has put in tremendous effort in translating this book.