Living High and Letting Die

By contributing a few hundred dollars to a charity like UNICEF, a prosperous person can ensure that fewer poor children die, and that more will live reasonably long, worthwhile lives. Even when knowing this, however, most people send nothing, and almost all of the rest send little. What is the moral status of this behavior? To such common cases of letting die, our untutored response is that, while it is not very good, neither is the conduct wrong. What is the source of this lenient assessment? In this contentious new book, one of our leading philosophers argues that our intuitions about ethical cases are generated not by basic moral values, but by certain distracting psychological dispositions that all too often prevent us from reacting in accord with our commitments. Through a detailed look at how these tendencies operate, Unger shows that, on the good morality that we already accept, the fatally unhelpful behavior is monstrously wrong. By uncovering the eminently sensible ethics that we've already embraced fully, and by confronting us with empirical facts and with easily followed instructions for lessening serious suffering appropriately and effectively, Unger's book points the way to a compassionate new moral philosophy.


Unger has pioneered a new way of testing and exploring our intuitions, with results that are devastating for traditional ideas of how to do ethics. This will shake normative ethics to its roots. A major work of fundamental importance both to moral philosophy and to the poor of this world. Important in a practical way, as well as in an academic way.--Peter Singer, Princeton University

A terrifically powerful piece of work, and its publication will make a nuclear-sized explosion.--Jonathan Bennett, Syracuse University

Unger's vigorous investigation of irrationalities in our daily thinking...suggests convincingly that we owe others far more than we typically think we do. This, then, is a book on a topic of great importance, written with much moral passion by a skillful and ingenious philosopher.--Martha Nussbaum, London Review of Books

A very fine book...carefully argued, imaginative, fearless.--David Lewis, Eureka Street

[Unger's] discussion of how much the well-off should sacrifice for the world's most needy stands as the state-of-the-art treatment of the subject.--Brad Hooker, Times Literary Supplement

Unger's book is full of subtle and oddly entertaining cases to support his view....[He handles conterarguments] with stunningly effective simplicity.--Globe and Mail

Unger challenges our moral beliefs with arguments that are always powerful, and often original. Everyone who can understand these arguments ought, I believe, to read and think about this book.--Derek Parfit, author of Reasons and Persons

Living High & Letting Die will annoy many students and faculty--which is a good thing. Unger challenges and illuminates our moral thinking in a direct, forceful way, causing students to engage in moral reasoning and moral psychology with more passion than is ordinarily the case. I used Unger's book alongside a standard anthology in ethical theory in An Introduction to Ethics course. The book's presentation is clear and understandable to undergraduates, and the examples are interesting, thought-provoking, and make doing philosophy fun. Challenge and incite your students with this book!--Tobyn DeMarco, Hunter College, City University of New York

Students either love or hate Living High & Letting Die--bored indifference is not an option. Unger's book prods, provokes, infuriates, and inspires. His ingenious and passionate arguments compell students to examine their beliefs as precious few do. They illustrate the significance and urgency of ethical decision-making, and powerfully demonstrate that philosophy can be much more than an abstract, theoretical, barren discipline.--Larry Temkin, Rice University