Famine, Affluence, and Morality

Charity

- Is charity a DUTY or merely a GOOD?

Charity

- Death from preventable causes (e.g. due to disaster recovery) is morally bad.

- If it is in our power to prevent something morally bad, without sacrificing anything of comparable importance, we must do so.

- It IS in our power to prevent death without sacrificing anything of comparable importance.

- Therefore, we have an obligation to give money to charity rather than buy luxury items.

The outcome of this argument is that our traditional moral cate- gories are upset. The traditional distinction between duty and charity cannot be drawn, or at least, not in the place we normally draw it. Giving money to the Bengal Relief Fund is regarded as an act of char- ity in our society. The bodies which collect money are known as "chari- ties." These organizations see themselves in this way—if you send them a check, you will be thanked for your "generosity." Because giving money is regarded as an act of charity, it is not thought that there is anything wrong with not giving. The charitable man may be praised, but the man who is not charitable is not condemned. People do not feel in any way ashamed or guilty about spending money on new clothes or a new car instead of giving it to famine relief. (Indeed, the alternative does not occur to them.) This way of looking at the matter cannot be justified. When we buy new clothes not to keep ourselves warm but to look "well-dressed" we are not providing for any impor- tant need. We would not be sacrificing anything significant if we were to continue to wear our old clothes, and give the money to famine relief. By doing so, we would be preventing another person from starv- ing. It follows from what I have said earlier that we ought to give money away, rather than spend it on clothes which we do not need to keep us warm. To do so is not charitable, or generous. Nor is it the kind of act which philosophers and theologians have called "super- erogatory"—an act which it would be good to do, but not wrong not to do. On the contrary, we ought to give the money away, and it is wrong not to do so.

Charity

Does physical proximity matter?

Do I really have obligations to people on the other side of the world?

Charity

"Other people could just as easily donate their money to charity - why should I be required to do it if other people aren't?"

Charity

- "Doesn't this make ethics TOO DEMANDING?"

Charity

- What are the PROBLEMS inherent in charity / foreign aid?

Charity