He's attended the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford, where he respectfully earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in philosophy. Today, he is a very controversial and influential philosopher. Singer is a proud utilitarian, which means he practices utilitarianism; it is an ethical philosophy that strongly believes that the best actions are those that maximize happiness and reduce suffering. He's published multiple books, which discussed various troubling topics such as, speciesism which can be defined as the practice of privileged humans over other animals, euthanasia, abortion and the death penalty, just to name a few. In his most recent book entitled The Life You Can Save Singer argues that it is the fortunate citizens of developed countries responsibility to provide financial aid to the extremely poor people in the Third World. He even goes as far as to say that those that do not give are unethical. This leads us to his thesis which is "If you do not donate to aid agencies that help the extremely poor in the Third World, you are doing something wrong; you are not leading an ethical life." (Singer 16) He gives many arguments to support his thesis but before doing so he gives his readers multiple scenarios and asks them what they would do, he also tells them what his students, who were also asked the question answered. In the first scenario for example, he tells them to imagine they are walking to work and see a young child on the face of drowning in a pond. .
You cannot spot the child's parents and there are no other passers-by around. You know that the child will die if he is not pulled out of the pond soon but if you go into the pond you will ruin the brand new pair of shoes you just bought, you'd also ruined your suit and be muddy until you get to work and can clean up. What do you do? His students said "how could anyone consider a pair of shoes, or missing an hour or two at work, a good reason for not saving a child's life?" (Singer 4) Singer then declares that "most of us are absolutely certain that we wouldn't hesitate to save a drowning child [.