"I don't think there's much point in bemoaning the state of the world unless there's some way you can think of to improve it."
Peter Singer was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, a Nazi controlled town. As an Austrian Jew his family struggled against discrimination, barely escaping imprisonment in concentration camps. Singer grew up to receive a full education and later won countless awards for his work and books as a philosopher. Through his studies in bioethics, he became one of the founders of the animal rights movements, which started his path as an activist for many other world issues.
He attended Melbourne University where he recieved a bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Law, and History. He continued his education at Melbourne University to earn his Master's degree. A scholarship to the University of Oxford allowed Singer to further his education and work on obtaining his Ph.D.
"It was wrong to capture wild animals and confine them in captivity for people to go and gawk at them. And that's basically how zoos got started. But once you do that, and once you have animals that have been bred in captivity, you're really stuck with them in some sense. You can't return them to the wild." -Peter Singer
His views focused on the idea of Utilitarianism. He believed in the ethical philosophy of actions being wrong or right depending on if they brought pain or happiness.
Singer's used his context of utilitarianism to remark on subjects such as stem cell research, euthanasia, global environmental concerns, infanticide, and political implications of Darwinism and human evolution. He had a passion for compassion and had no shame in speaking out for what he believed in. It's no secret that he used his life to educate those on important moral concepts and the key aspects of ethics.
References:
- http://www.biography.com
- https://www.britannica.com
- http://www.famousphilosophers.org