Human Beings Are Not Improving

1024 Words5 Pages
Critique of “Human beings are not improving” In the article “Human beings are improving, despite fears of moral collapse” (The Daily Star, 2012), Peter Singer claims that the ability of humans to reason has led to moral consideration and hence moral progress in today’s society. Firstly, Singer argues that through reasoning, we are better poised to solve problems. He then states that reasoning makes it possible to avoid dangers hence increasing one’s survival prospects. Finally, Singer asserts that reasoning allows us to show moral consideration to our fellow beings. Therefore, Singer believes that reasoning engenders morality among human beings and our views towards others are changed, coupled with the fact that our ability to solve problems enables us to make favourable decisions. Although Singer may have a point here, he failed to realise that the capacity to reason may not be homogenous among human beings and reasoning is not applicable in every situation. In his article, Singer claims that a person’s ability in reasoning makes it possible to solve problems. He believes that reasoning allows ideas to be more abstract and hence problems are easily solved by this ability. For example, Singer asserts that only abstract reasoning should be attributed to problem solving, in the case of IQ tests. However, Singer has made an assumption here and failed to realise that this is not applicable to some groups of people, for example the autistic children who have learning disabilities. Studies show that autistic children also need to be responsive and establish motor skills (Hertog & J.D, 2007) in their efforts to solve problems. Singer also makes a generalisation by asserting that IQ scores indicate a person’s capacity to reason. Research meanwhile shows that “IQ scores of children on the autism spectrum may not be accurate reflections of their innate intellectual
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