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Rethinking Singer: Toward a valid argument for helping the global poor Cover

Rethinking Singer: Toward a valid argument for helping the global poor

By: Joshua Luczak  
Open Access
|Dec 2025

Figures & Tables

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Argument 9
1. Classical (hedonistic) utilitarianism is true.
2. Donating some proportion of your wealth to an effective aid agency maximises expected utility.

C1. You ought, morally speaking, donate some proportion of your wealth to an effective aid agency. (From 1 and 2).
C2. If you do not donate some proportion of your wealth to an effective aid agency, then you are doing something morally wrong. (From C1).

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Argument 3
1. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so.
3. By donating to effective aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.

C1. Therefore, if you do not donate to effective aid agencies, you are doing something wrong. (From 1–3).

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Argument 2
1. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.
U1. People are suffering and dying from lack of food, shelter and medical care.
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so.
3. By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.

C1. Therefore, if you do not donate to aid agencies, you are doing something wrong. (From 1–3).

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Argument 1
1. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so.
3. By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.

C1. Therefore, if you do not donate to aid agencies, you are doing something wrong. (From 1–3).

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Argument 1
1. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so.
3. By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.

C1. Therefore, if you do not donate to aid agencies, you are doing something wrong. (From 1–3)

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Argument 7
1. The death of a child is bad.
2. If it is within your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so.
3. By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.

C1. We ought to prevent the deaths of children affected by global poverty. (From 1–3).

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Argument 6
1. Extreme poverty is bad.
2. If we can prevent something bad without sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance, we ought to do it.
3. There is some extreme poverty we can prevent without sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance.

C1. We ought to prevent some extreme poverty. (From 1–3).

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Argument 5
1. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.
U1. People are suffering and dying from lack of food, shelter and medical care.
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, you ought, morally, to do it.
U2. By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant.

UC1. Therefore, you ought, morally, to donate to aid agencies. (From 1–U2).
UC2. Therefore, if you do not donate to aid agencies, you are doing something wrong. (From UC1).

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Argument 4
1. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.
U1. People are suffering and dying from lack of food, shelter and medical care.
2. If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, you ought, morally, to do it.
U2. By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance.

UC1. Therefore, you ought, morally, to donate to aid agencies. (From 1–U2).
UC2. Therefore, if you do not donate to aid agencies, you are doing something wrong. (From UC1).

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Argument 8
1. People are suffering and dying from lack of food, shelter, and medical care.
2. If it is within your power to prevent some suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is morally wrong not to do it.
3. It is within your power to prevent some suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.
C1. If you do not do something within your power to prevent some suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, that would not sacrifice anything nearly as important, then you are doing something morally wrong. (From 2).
4. You ought, morally speaking, aid in the most effective way.
5. There are some aid agencies (EAs) who, through their efforts, most effectively prevent some suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care.
C2. You ought, morally speaking, donate to EAs. (From 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
C3. If you do not donate to EAs, you are doing something morally wrong. (From 1, 3, C1, 4, 5).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2025-0012 | Journal eISSN: 2453-7829 | Journal ISSN: 1338-5615
Language: English
Page range: 220 - 232
Published on: Dec 31, 2025
Published by: University of Prešov
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2025 Joshua Luczak, published by University of Prešov
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.