Reviews for One world

The average rating for One world based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-07 00:00:00 Marek Svoboda Peter Singer has long since proven himself to be one of the most important and influential ethical utilitarian philosophers of the 20th century. However, when Singer steps into the realm of politics things get a little murky; this book, "One World" is an analysis of Globalization and its effects, and it's a less than perfect work. For instance, Singer provides thorough background information on the harmful effects industry is having on the environment in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, and then moves into a section on politics and international law. Now the problem with his research is that the majority of the sources he cites in the footnotes are outdated web pages that can no longer be accessed, hardly something you want to ground your beliefs about globalization in. The exception to this is the source for footnote 33 on page 45 of the "One Atmosphere" chapter, which links to an excellent website detailing the U.S.'s steadily increasing rate of Carbon Dioxide Emissions which confirm his claims. Unfortunately, a number of these online resources Singer cites cannot be reached, I'm referring now to footnotes 5 and 6 of chapter 1 which details U.N. reports, footnotes 2 and 4 of chapter 2 are also not available, as are footnotes 10, 11, 20, 35, 37, and 59 of chapter 3, "One Economy," and these are just a sampling of the sources I checked. The majority of this is highly unreliable data, and it's not just the websites, Singer relies very heavily on Thomas Friedman's biased book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree," see footnotes 15,16, and 17 of chapter 1. Clearly there's a dilemma for people who are serious about this topic after reading through Singer's notes. Hell, maybe every single source cited in this book is correct, but I couldn't verify a great deal of it. But that's just one complaint I have with the book; in addition, Singer indicates to me that he just isn't an expert on politics in any sense of the word. For instance, when discussing international law and humanitarian intervention initiatives, Singer simply confuses political "authority" with political "legitimacy" outright. Not only that, but he proceeds to discuss genocide and crimes against humanity with regard to Democratic political systems without offering any kind of working definition of democracy. I wonder if he realizes that the so-called democracy in the U.S. contributed to the genocide in East Timor. Anyway, as I've said before Singer is an excellent ethical philosopher, but his politics is pretty amateurish. Perhaps my biggest complaint with the book is Singer's failure to analyze the connection between the rise of globalization with the rise of poverty, pollution, war, etc. He simply describes globalization as a phenomenon, detailing the facets of the WTO and so on, without offering much of a thoughtful connection between that phenomenon with the other ethical concerns of the book. To put it simply, Singer ultimately cops out in offering a normative judgment on globalization as a whole, preferring instead to move on to other issues like international law and nationalism, issues that for me at least are intimately related to globalization. The book does have some good insights to offer; the final section where Singer analyzes the U.S.'s frugal contributions to Third World countries is particularly striking, and he offers some insightful solutions to solving problems of global poverty and suffering. Additionally, he offers some interesting criticisms of John Rawls' work in political justice and his failure to address issues of justice between differing societies. Yet, I'm afraid this book has too many problems to recommend or rely on, but I'm sure there are many superior books on globalization for readers who are willing to look.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-08-12 00:00:00 Dandanmre Mre Nothing is more important than developing ethical principles for a global society. And nobody is more qualified to speak on the subject than a world class philosopher like Peter Singer. It therefore breaks my heart to tell you that this book falls diabolically short of those high expectations. Don't get me wrong. Many of the essays are good or even very good. The best ones, unsurprisingly, deal with the ethics of global justice, our obligations to strangers, utilitarianism, and other familiar (and typically Singerian) topics. But the problem is that the 1) whole collection hangs together by a very loose thread and 2) several of the included essays are substandard. It appears that my disappointment derives from lackadaisical editorializing. This hodgepodge of essays fails to pass itself off as a coherent whole. And several rotten apples have been allowed to spoil the bunch. The rotten apples are Singer's more down-to-earth, journalistic essays around geopolitical, scientific, and economic topics. They showcase how little Singer knows about certain things and how little his contribution adds to the debate. Singer is a generalist philosopher and not a climate scientist, trade economist or foreign aid expert. His understanding of those issues is on the level of a well-educated general reader. There are better books out there around all of those topics. Singer's humdrum discussion of the WTO, the U.N. or the IPCC resorts to echoing platitudes (although, to his credit, he doesn't parrot the ideological talking points but mostly follows the science). The unique skills of the philosopher are so obliterated that these essays could have been written by almost anybody with a few years of social science education and practice as a journalist. It is only when he steps outside of the social scientific field into the field of philosophy and ethics that his argumentation shines. Not being an expert in a field would not preclude Singer from taking that knowledge for a ride and giving it an interesting spin from a philosophical angle. Considering how good a philosopher Singer is at his best, the perfunctory essays on climate change and political economy feel like missed opportunities. I would have LOVED to have seen Singer's philosophical analysis of climate change, international trade, or world government. Where is it, then? This is one of Singer's weaker books (or, more accurately, essay collages). It has a few bits and sections that make my heart giggle, but this is Prof. Singer using only 23% of his full power. It reminds me of a superhero wanting to pass himself off as normal for a day. Peter Singer, like Peter Parker, needs his days off, but we want to see him put on that costume and save the world at the end of the day. And to save the world, a Singer man must do whatever a Singer can.