Philosophy Salon

If you passed a child drowning in a pond, would you have a moral obligation to save them? Most people would say we do. But in 1972 the philosopher Peter Singer argued that if that is true, we also have a duty to help people far away too. In his new book, David Edmonds unpicks the argument and its implications. In this informal salon hosted by St George’s Philosopher-in-residence Julian Baggini, Edmonds will be joined by Bridget Anderson to explore our duties to refugees, the poor and others at home and abroad.

David Edmonds is the bestselling author of many critically acclaimed and popular books on philosophy, including Wittgenstein’s Poker (with John Eidinow). His other books include Parfit, The Murder of Professor Schlick, and Would You Kill the Fat Man? (all Princeton). A Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Uehiro Oxford Institute and a former BBC radio journalist, Edmonds hosts, with Nigel Warburton, the Philosophy Bites podcast, which has been downloaded nearly 50 million times.

Bridget Anderson is the Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol and Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship. She is the author of Us and Them? The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Controls (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour (Zed Books, 2000). Bridget has worked closely with migrants’ organisations, trades unions and legal practitioners at local, national and international levels.