Living High and Letting Die高高在上让死亡.docVIP

LIVING HIGH AND LETTING DIE This page intentionally left blank LIVING HIGH AND LETTING DIE Our Illusion of Innocence Peter Unger New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1996 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright ? 1996 by Peter Unger Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Unger, Peter K. Living high and letting die : our illusion of innocence / Peter Unger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-507589-7; ISBN 0-19-510859-0 (pbk.) 1. Life and death, Power over. 2. Ethics. 3. Generosity. I. Title. BJ1469.U54 1996 170—dc20 96-1463 All authors royalties from the sale of this book go, in equal measure, to Oxfam America and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF. 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my wife, Susan our son, Andrew ray brother, Jonathan our father, Sidney And for my dear friend, Keith DeRose This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the early 1970s, Peter Singer spent two consecutive academic years as a visiting assistant professor in the Philosophy Department at New York University. As hed just recently written his now famous paper, Famine, Affluence and Morality, I couldnt help but discuss with him that revolutionary work. As a result, I became convinced of the essential soundness of, and the enormous importance of, the