RATIONAL INTUITION AND THE FOUNDATION OF ETHICS IN PETER SINGER'S MORAL PHILOSOPHY

This paper discusses the exertion of Peter Singer in the article "The Objectivity of Ethics and the Unity of Practical Reason" to find a normative objective principle. Singer considers the Axiom of Universal Benevolence able to go through three credibility criteria required for rational intuitions that must be accepted as moral truths. And comes to the conclusion that: 1) it is possible to "believe" in his evidence; 2) versions of Axiom were proposed by independent thinkers from different eras and traditions; 3) the Axiom must not be explained as the result of an evolutionary process or any other process than the search for truth. So for Singer the Axiom is a normative objective principle.