When one considers the subject of global poverty, questions arise as to whether the help that rich countries can give poor countries is a matter of humanitarianism and generosity or whether it is rather a matter of global justice. This is related to a question about the extent to which the poverty of many nations is a result of policies of the rich nations and their corporations, a result, that is, of sins of commission as opposed merely to sins of omission. These and other such questions will be the theme of one of the leading moral philosophers in the world, Peter Singer.

Peter Singer is Ira W. Decamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University. His numerous publications include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, and most recently, The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter with Jim Mason.