
Peter Singer is sometimes called "the world’s most influential living philosopher" although he thinks that if that is true, it doesn't say much for all the other living philosophers around today. He has also been called the father (or grandfather?) of the modern animal rights movement, even though he doesn't base his philosophical views on rights, either for humans or for animals. In 2005 Time magazine named Singer one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute ranked him 3rd among Global Thought Leaders for 2013. (He has since slipped to 36th.) He is known especially for his work on the ethics of our treatment of animals, for his controversial critique of the sanctity of life doctrine in bioethics, and for his writings on the obligations of the affluent to aid those living in extreme poverty. Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975. In 2011 Time included Animal Liberation on its “All-TIME” list of the 100 best nonfiction books published in English since the magazine began, in 1923. Singer has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Practical Ethics; The Expanding Circle; How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), The Point of View of the Universe (with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek), The Most Good You Can Do, Ethics in the Real World and Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction. His works have appeared in more than 30 languages. Singer’s book The Life You Can Save, first published in 2009, led him to found a non-profit organization of the same name. In 2019, Singer got back the rights to the book and granted them to the organization, enabling it to make the eBook and audiobook versions available free from its website, www.thelifeyoucansave.org. Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States and Australia, he has, since 1999, been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He is married, with three daughters and four grandchildren. His recreations include hiking and surfing. In 2012 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation’s highest civic honour.
Series
Books

Practical Ethics
1979

Utilitarianism
A Very Short Introduction
2017

Ethics in the Real World
90 Essays on Things That Matter - A Fully Updated and Expanded Edition
2023

Animal Liberation
1975

Rethinking Life and Death
The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics
1995

A Companion to Bioethics
1998

The President of Good & Evil
Questioning the Ethics of George W. Bush
2004

The Way We Eat
Why Our Food Choices Matter
2006

A Darwinian Left
Politics, Evolution, and Cooperation
2000

Democracy & Disobedience
1973

The Grandest Challenge
Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village
2011

Pushing Time Away
My Grandfather and the Tragedy of Jewish Vienna
2003

Ethics into Action
Learning from a Tube of Toothpaste
1998

The Most Good You Can Do
How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically
2015

Marx
1980

Animal Liberation Now
The Definitive Classic Renewed
2023

Does Anything Really Matter?
Essays on Parfit on Objectivity
2017

In Defense of Animals
The Second Wave
1985

All Animals Are Equal
1989

Applied Ethics
1986

Ethics
1994

The Expanding Circle
Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress
1981

Hegel
A Very Short Introduction
1983

Ethics in the Real World
82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter
2016

Unsanctifying Human Life
Essays on Ethics
2001

How Are We To Live?
Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest
1993

The Point of View of the Universe
Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics
2014

One World
The Ethics of Globalization
2002

Why Vegan?
2020

The Life You Can Save
Acting Now to End World Poverty
2009

Famine, Affluence, and Morality
1972

The Buddhist and the Ethicist
Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World
2024

A Companion to Ethics
1991

Writings on an Ethical Life
2000