Pain and suffering

This volume brings together two highly credentialled thinkers about moral and ethical matters: Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei, a Taiwanese Buddhist nun, founder of the animal welfare organisation the Life Conservation Association and the Buddhist Hong-Shi College, as well as a lecturer at Hsuan Chuang University.

Peter Singer is Australia’s best-known philosopher. An atheist and a utilitarian, he is most famous for extending the utilitarian ideal – often understood to be the greatest good for the greatest number, but described by Singer as the ‘greatest possible benefit’ – to all sentient beings. Shih Chao-Hwei was born in Myanmar, after her family’s flight from China following the rise of communism, and moved to Taiwan at an early age. After exploring Buddhism at university, she was ordained as a Bhikshuni – a nun – in a Mahayana Buddhist tradition, which (like most forms of Buddhism) is known for its strong ethical standpoints and its aversion to killing. Chao-Hwei belongs to an international network associated with the term Engaged Buddhism, which was coined by the Vietnamese monk Thích Nhất Hạnh (who was not the fourteenth Dalai Lama as the book’s prelims suggest). Engaged Buddhism, a modern Buddhist ecumenical movement, aims to connect Buddhist teachings and practitioners to social justice issues. Chao-Hwei has been a vocal advocate in Taiwan for the rights of women, LGBTQI+ communities, and animal liberation.