The problem of moral demands

Abstract

Demandingness - the concept that moral theory can generate extreme demands - is a problem for moral philosophy. Essentially, moral theories run into the problem of demandingness when they seem to ask too much of people. For example, the problem arises when a theory requires an agent to give up a lot of money, or a lot of their time, or to sacrifice their own goals in order to pursue the goal of helping others. The best-known example of an argument for extremely demanding moral obligations is Peter Singer's argument as presented in "Famine, Affluence and Morality" Peter Singer, " Famine, Affluence and Morality," Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (1972): 229-243. Singer argues that basically what we ought to do is to give as much of our time and money to charity as we possibly can, until we reach the point at which giving any more would make us badly off enough to justify a refusal to save a life. It seems that any affluent Westerner would have to be very badly off indeed before they reach this point. So it seems that if we are to agree with Singer, then we have to accept that morality requires an awful lot of us.