Bridging Ethics: A Lecture Tour Across China
Exploring Moral Philosophy, Utilitarianism, AI Ethics and Animal Liberation across China
This week, I will begin a three-week lecture tour in China, giving close to 20 lectures in different major cities and at leading universities. (For details about the lectures, please see recent posts on my social media.)
Why do I think that it is worth the time and effort to undertake such an extensive, and strenuous, lecture tour?
Two years ago, foreseeing my planned retirement from my position at Princeton University, I was thinking about ways of continuing to have a positive impact in the world after I had ceased to teach. I was particularly already thinking of trying to extend my influence to Asia, where I am less well-known. One aspect of this was to accept a visiting position at the National University of Singapore (NUS), in the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, now directed by Professor Julian Savulescu.
One of the first concrete ideas was raised by my research assistant (on AI ethics) at Princeton, Tse Yip Fai, who is based in Hong Kong, and suggested that I should try to promote my ideas in China. Instead of giving one or two lectures per visit, as I have done on the few previous times that I have visited China, he suggested that I should go on a longer tour, covering many different topics that would form a complete “curriculum” of my thoughts on ethics and how to live an ethical life.
Fai’s idea was that that such a tour would be a mutual learning experience – I might have a positive long term impact on how people in China think about, teach, and act according to ethics; and I would learn a lot about how some Chinese ideas and philosophy might relate to some of my own key ideas, such as utilitarianism, animal ethics, helping the global poor, and effective altruism. Fai offered to assist by contacting scholars and universities, organizing the tour logistics, and even helping with the content by suggesting locally relevant examples. He also offered to translate my slides so that they would be bilingual.
Coincidentally, around the same time as Fai was urging me to do a tour of China, Julian Savulescu asked me, as part of my duties as a visiting professor, to speak at a bioethics conference in Beijing, which it was hoped would strengthen ties between NUS and leading Chinese scholars working in bioethics.
China is, of course, a hugely important country, and the value of having a positive impact on 1.4 billion people, and on the lives of the tens of billions of animals they consume, has long been obvious to me. Several of my books have been translated into Chinese, but it was hard to know if they had had any impact. Now Fai had convinced me that it was feasible for me to reach Chinese audiences in a more impactful way than I had been able to do so far. I felt that I had to make the attempt, and the fact that NUS was also asking me to travel to China made it clear that this was the time to do it.
We started planning for this tour a year ago. It was no easy task, but as it began to take shape a few months ago, and we received feedback from philosophers in China, we could sense that it would be a stimulating and impactful trip. Here are some of the (paraphrased and/or translated) comments we received from activists, scholars, or philosophers in China.
“This is a historical event of exchange of ideas between Chinese and Western philosophy”
“Singer’s visit will be such an encouragement to people who are trying to help animals in China.”
“As we confront urgent global challenges like poverty and environmental sustainability, Singer's presence can elevate these critical conversations in a country that plays a pivotal role in global affairs.”
I am honored that I will be meeting and having discussions with some of the leading philosophers and scholars in China. I would like to thank all the universities, organisations, and individuals who have invited me to visit and helped me organized lectures and events in China, and those who have provided generous support for the travelling and accommodation expenses for myself and Fai, and also for the kind offers of honoraria. (Whatever exceeds the amount needed to cover the expenses of the tour will be donated to effective charities.)
In China I will be speaking on many different topics, ranging from the importance of teaching and researching practical ethics, to the basis of utilitarianism, the applications of utilitarianism in the real world, life and death decisions in medicine, and, of course, the moral status of animals and the ethics of what we eat. I will give one lecture jointly with Fai, on AI ethics, focusing on the inclusion of animals in that field. Most lectures will be livestreamed, so that they have the potential to reach a much larger audience than those who can be present.
Finally, you can now listen to the “Lives Well Lived” podcast in China:
I’m a high schooler in Guangdong, China, and would love to attend one of your in-person lectures. Are you coming to this region? Is there a place where I can see the times and locations of your lecture tour? Thanks a lot!
Where is the schedule? I am also in China but of course hard to see your lecture if there is no schedule.