Peter Singer

Biography

Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher. He has taught at Oxford University, La Trobe University, Monash University – where he founded the Centre for Human Bioethics – and Princeton University, where he was Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics from 1999-2024.  His many books include Animal Liberation – often credited with triggering the modern animal rights movement – Practical Ethics, The Life You Can Save, Ethics in the Real World, and, most recently, The Buddhist and the Ethicist.  In 2023, he published Animal Liberation Now, a fully revised and updated version of the 1975 original.  Singer’s writings have also inspired the movement known as effective altruism, and he is the founder of the charity The Life You Can Save. Together with Francesca Minerva and Jeff McMahan, he founded and co-edits the Journal of Controversial Ideas, to ensure that there is a forum in which controversial ideas can be published, including, if the author requests, under a pseudonym.

In 2012, Singer was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.  He was awarded the $1 million Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture in 2021, and donated the prize money to nonprofit organizations working for the causes he supports. In 2023 he received the Frontiers of Knowledge Prize for the Humanities, from the Spanish BBVA Foundation.

Photo by Alletta Vaandering