Peter Singer

Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, on July 6, 1946. He received a B.A. (Hons) from the University of Melbourne in 1967 and an M.A. there in 1969, and a B.Phil. from the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England, where teaching existed in some form by 1096; it describes itself as the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is organised as a federal system of the university and dozens of self-governing colleges.Open the full entry in 1971.⁠[1]

He recalls that in 1970, as a graduate student at Oxford, a lunch with Richard Keshen, a Canadian graduate student and vegetarian, introduced him to concerns about factory farming; in 1971 he and his wife stopped eating meat.⁠[2]

He was Radcliffe Lecturer at University College, Oxford, from 1971 to 1973 and professor of philosophy at Monash University from 1977 to 1999.⁠[1]

In 1972 he published the article “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” which became one of the most widely reprinted philosophical essays and inspired effective altruism.⁠[3]

Animal Liberation, published in 1975, made him internationally known; in 2011 TIMETIMETIME is an American newsmagazine and media brand founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, which published its first issue on March 3, 1923; it is headquartered in New York and known for its Person of the Year selection and the TIME100 list. Since 2018 it has been personally owned by Marc and Lynne Benioff; its current Chief Executive Officer is Jessica Sibley, and its Editor-in-Chief is Sam Jacobs.Open the full entry included it on its list of the 100 best English-language nonfiction books published since 1923.⁠[4]

He says that before the book “there wasn’t really an animal movement”; it inspired the founding of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and growing awareness of abuses in factory farming and animal experimentation.⁠[5]

He also co-founded the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia, the country’s largest animal organization.⁠[6]

In 1980 he and his colleague Helga Kuhse established at Monash University Australia’s first research centre devoted to bioethics, originally called the Centre for Human Bioethics.⁠[7]

In 1999 he became the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University’s University Center for Human Values.⁠[6]

Because of his view that parents should be able to choose euthanasia for severely disabled newborns, groups including New Jersey Right to Life, the disability group Not Dead Yet and Princeton Students Against Infanticide protested the appointment, arguing that his views demeaned disabled people; Princeton president Harold Shapiro defended it in an open letter.⁠[8]

From 2005 he also held a part-time position as laureate professor at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.⁠[9]

In 2009 he published The Life You Can Save, making the case for effective giving.⁠[10]

In February 2011 Cambridge University Press published the third edition of his Practical Ethics, which the publisher calls the classic introduction to applied ethics for thirty years; the new edition added a chapter on climate change.⁠[11]

In 2012 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation’s highest civic honor.⁠[4]

The citation honored his eminent service to philosophy and bioethics as a leader of public debate and communicator of ideas in the areas of global poverty, animal welfare and the human condition.⁠[12]

In 2013 he and former executive Charlie Bresler founded the nonprofit The Life You Can Save, based on his book of the same name, to promote effective giving to help people in extreme poverty.⁠[10]

On April 7, 2015, Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry Press published his The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically, an account of the effective altruism movement.⁠[13]

On July 8, 2020, he was the guest on episode #107 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing World War II, suffering, whether robots can suffer, animal liberation, the AI control problem, utilitarianism and helping people in poverty.⁠[14]

On September 7, 2021, he was named winner of the $1 million Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture and said he planned to donate all of it; jury chair Kwame Anthony Appiah said few academic philosophers had ever had his impact.⁠[15]

That year he founded the Journal of Controversial Ideas as a forum for careful, rigorous discussion of controversial ideas.⁠[16]

On March 9, 2023, he and Steven PinkerSteven PinkerSteven Pinker is a Canadian-born experimental psychologist and popular-science author who studies language, cognition and social relations; after more than two decades at MIT he has been a professor of psychology at Harvard University since 2003, and his books include The Language Instinct, The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now.Open the full entry were named winners of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities and Social Sciences; the committee said he had extended the scope of ethics to animals, with major consequences for international animal welfare legislation.⁠[17]

In May 2023 Harper Perennial published Animal Liberation Now, updating Animal Liberation, last revised in 1990, with more attention to the suffering of farmed fish and new material on the pandemic risks of factory farming and its impact on climate change.⁠[5]

On December 6, 2023, he gave his last lecture at Princeton, recalling the protests by disability rights activists when he was appointed in 1999. Some students said they disagreed with some of his more extreme views but praised his teaching, while he said universities should allow people to speak and then debate differences civilly.⁠[16]

On May 16, 2024, Lives Well Lived, a podcast he co-hosts with Kasia de Lazari-Radek, premiered, with each guest conversation exploring how to live an ethical and fulfilling life.⁠[18]

On July 1, 2024, after twenty-five years on the Princeton faculty, he transferred to emeritus status.⁠[19]

After retiring he returned to live in Melbourne and visits Singapore twice a year as V.K. Rajah Visiting Professor in Medical Ethics at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Biomedical Ethics; he is married and has three daughters.⁠[2]

In 2025 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.⁠[3]

Personal website: Public link: https://petersinger.info/ (opens in a new window)⁠[20]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC20JvMah3yzx8SthM5OOCzA (opens in a new window)⁠[20]

Monash University: Official website: https://www.monash.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[7]

Princeton University: Official website: https://www.princeton.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

University of Melbourne: Official website: https://www.unimelb.edu.au/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]