I’m missing the sell-out talk by Peter Singer promoting his latest “The Most Good You Can Do” this evening at Conway hall, due to switching to attend a screening of Timbuktu at Institute Français / Cine Lumiere (more on which later, but a new group of people to interact with as well as the film itself).
I was expecting to find Singer’s rational position too extreme for my taste, based on the advance blurb, but wanted to hear his arguments – I’ll just have to read his book. Coincidentally, already had feedback from his lunchtime presentation at RSA today that kinda reinforced my (clearly admitted) prejudice.
Anyway, an important debate none-the-less. Thanks to twitter, no shortage of input. Not least this NY Review of Books review by John Gray, and Singer’s own letter in response. I share the frustration of many with Gray’s overly pessimistic negativity, but can’t fault his basic arguments, so I shall read both with interest.
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[Post notes : Made the right call there. Consistent with feedback from the earlier talk today, if the video recording was anything to go by, the Peter Singer talk at Conway Hall / London Thinks appears to have been excruciating.
Moving on. Timbuktu on the other hand was wonderful.]