The Buddhist and the Ethicist
Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Eastern spirituality and utilitarian philosophy meet in these unique dialogues between a Buddhist monastic and a moral philosopher on such issues as animal welfare, gender equality, the death penalty and more. An unlikely duo, preeminent Australian philosopher and professor of bioethics Peter Singer and Taiwanese Buddhist monastic and social activist Shih Chao-Hwei, discuss ethics in lively conversations that cross oceans, overcome language and cultural barriers and bridge philosophies.
Together, these two deep thinkers explore the foundation of ethics and key Buddhist concepts, and ultimately reveal how we can all move towards making the world a better place.
Australian philosopher Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and the recipient of the Berggruen Prize for ideas that shape human self-understanding. He is the author of more than twenty books, including The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), The Most Good you can Do and Ethics in the Real World. Singer divides his time between Princeton and Melbourne.
Shih Chao-Hwei was born in Myanmar in 1958. She founded the Life Conservation Association to improve animals welfare and the Buddhist Hong-Shi College in Taiwan. She teaches in the Religion and Cultural Department at Taiwan’s Hsuan-Chuang University and is a spiritual mentor of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists along with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Thich Nhat Hanh. She has published thirty-four books and has received the Chinese Literary Award for cultural discourse from the Chinese Literature and Arts Association, Taiwan, and Japan’s Niwano Peace Prize.
‘Peter Singer’s status as a man of principles and towering intellect—a philosopher extraordinaire, if you will—is unrivalled in Australia.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘A public intellectual par excellence.‘ Monthly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Western utilitarianism meets Buddhist philosophy in this intellectually stimulating if uneven outing. In 2016 at the Bodhi Monastery in Taiwan, Singer (Animal Liberation), an ethicist and professor of bioethics at Princeton, and Chao-Hwei (Buddhist Normative Ethics), a Buddhist monastic and professor of ethics at Hsuan-Chuang University in Taiwan, discussed a broad range of moral issues, including abortion, the death penalty, animal rights, and euthanasia. Edited and expanded here, their dialogues unfold in rigorous detail and probe rich and trenchant ethical questions: for example, the conversation on the use of embryos for medical research examines the limits of sentience, the biological instinct to survive, and the respect that should be afforded to nonconscious beings. (Chao-Hwei sees the biological will to live as an indication of inherent moral worth, while Singer argues this biological impulse has no inherent moral value.) Chao-Hwei's perspective is more prominent throughout, and provides valuable context on Buddhism's application to contemporary ethical debates. Unfortunately, Singer's utilitarianism occasionally gets lost in the shuffle, and the pair's exchanges can feel stilted after being adapted for the book. Still, readers with an interest in either school of thought will find plenty of insight in these challenging and thought-provoking investigations.
