Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence

 By contributing a few hundred dollars to a charity like UNICEF, a prosperous person can ensure that fewer poor children die, and that more will live reasonably long, worthwhile lives. Even when knowing this, however, most people send nothing, and almost all of the rest send little. What is the moral status of this behavior? To such common cases of letting die, our untutored response is that, while it is not very good, neither is the conduct wrong. What is the source of this lenient assessment? In this contentious new book, one of our leading philosophers argues that our intuitions about ethical cases are generated not by basic moral values, but by certain distracting psychological dispositions that all too often prevent us from reacting in accord with our commitments. Through a detailed look at how these tendencies operate, Unger shows that, on the good morality that we already accept, the fatally unhelpful behavior is monstrously wrong. By uncovering the eminently sensible ethics that we've already embraced fully, and by confronting us with empirical facts and with easily followed instructions for lessening serious suffering appropriately and effectively, Unger's book points the way to a compassionate new moral philosophy.

Review: "A major work of fundamental importance both to moral philosophy and to the poor of this world....Important in a practical way, as well as in an academic way."-Peter Singer, Monash University and author of Animal Liberation
"A terrifically powerful piece of work, and its publication will make a nuclear-sized explosion."-Jonathan Bennett, Syracuse University
"Unger challenges our moral beliefs with arguments that are always powerful, and often original. Everyone who can understand these arguments ought, I believe, to read and think about this book."-Derek Parfit, Oxford University
One of the most significant works of ethics published this decade. * Peter Singer, London Review of Books *