Peter Singer Gives Frank Take On Controversial Beliefs, Present State Of Philosophy

Philosopher Peter Singer joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the controversies surrounding his work and past statements, and what it means to be a philosopher today.

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[JohnThomas]

Peter Singer is such an impressive thinker! So clear, logical and persuasive!

[dantheman]

Ideas are never dangerous but all should be questioned.
Saying this gent is the world's greatest living philosopher?

[nonakotler]

Just let the fear go. Don't think about what will happen in the next moment.

We know nothing about what is truly going on in our lives. It is thus best for us to just let go. We hold such potential within us. Letting go of our fears requires some training, but we need it.

Fear comes from our will to control situations we find ourselves in, and when we cannot control them. When we let go of fear, we then seemingly control the situations from another end. For instance, take one of the most common fears: the fear of death. Our death is inevitable. Accepting the fact that we will certainly die, we can then imagine how the world will continue developing after we are gone, agree with that picture, and let go of any current fear we have.

There are no set steps, however, for how to let go of fear. It is different for each and every person. Some people start thinking along the lines of "What will happen to the world after I’m gone?” “How will my loved ones and my relatives continue their lives?” “What will happen with my inheritance?” and “How will my legacy unfold?” Faced by these questions, we need to make another correction—of our attitude toward life and death, which is behind our every fear.

We should transform our fears into an absolute surrender to the will of nature—the will bestow that created and sustains us—which requires us to make a certain kind of effort. We might still have to go through a lot of frightening moments until we reach the end of our earthly path, so we should try to calm ourselves down.

The laws of nature that created and sustain us, and which we are ultimately being led to discover, are in a state of absolute calmness and rest. We should thus aim to emulate nature’s calmness.

We are calm when we are not worried about what will happen in the next moment. It is a difficult point to express because it is not simply about flowing with the currents of life. On the contrary, we need to rely on the laws of nature that operate on us at every moment, which control everything and everyone.

Since we live within fixed and determined laws of nature that are in total control over our lives, then we have nothing to worry about. Do we want to interfere with the laws that are driving everyone and everything through corrections? Of course we don't. We then might as well calm down and move on with our lives.

That state of calmness indicates agreement. It means that we agree with the laws of nature, which is quite difficult, because we always want to hold back, check what is happening in nature’s plans, and argue that maybe things should play out a bit differently.

[nawzadjamal]

let put a side such defenition or discription whether he is greats philosopher or not, and listen carefully what he thinks and says about such sensitive question.

[adamnogender]

'The worlds greatest living philosopher'

What a joke!

How have Peters views on heavy petting progressed? Are we much closer to having that acceptable now?

[jimmy.singer]

“The world’s greatest living philosopher” 😂 what a joke.