Listen to This—Then Play Happy Music! (Utilitarianism, Part 2)

The Norton Library Podcast

The Norton Library Podcast
Listen to This—Then Play Happy Music! (Utilitarianism, Part 2)
Dec 01, 2025 Season 4 Episode 6
The Norton Library

In Part 2 of our discussion on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, co-editor Peter Singer returns to discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, the formation of an argument about a philosophical thought, and a soundtrack for the book (spoiler: John Lennon's "Imagine" is involved). 

Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, is currently Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He is best known for Animal Liberation, first published in 1975 and widely considered to be the founding statement of the animal rights movement; and for The Life You Can Save, which led him to found the charity of the same name. His other books include Practical Ethics, The Most Good You Can Do, and the two books co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari- Radek. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.

To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Utilitarianism, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393441161.

Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.

Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social

Episode Artwork Listen to This—Then Play Happy Music! (Utilitarianism, Part 2) 33:10 Episode Artwork Better Socrates Dissatisfied than a Fool Satisfied? (Utilitarianism, Part 1) 27:58 Episode Artwork The Importance of Fun (The Decameron, Part 2) 34:21 Episode Artwork The Stealth Classic (The Decameron, Part 1) 28:26 Episode Artwork I Write Only That Whereof I Know (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Part 2) 31:54 Episode Artwork Less Like You're Reading Her, More Like You're Listening to Her (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Part 1) 33:04 Episode Artwork It's Never Too Late to Discover Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms, Part 2) 33:45 Episode Artwork A Tale of Love and a Tale of War (A Farewell to Arms, Part 1) 33:52 Episode Artwork Hector and Achilles are More Alike Than You Think (The Iliad, Part 2) 35:33 Episode Artwork Achilles's Job is Beach (The Iliad, Part 1) 37:19 Episode Artwork Jo's Elastic Heart (Little Women, Part 2) 30:57 Episode Artwork Life Planning 101 with Louisa May Alcott (Little Women, Part 1) 32:06 Episode Artwork Tell Your Students about Edith Wharton! (The Age of Innocence, Part 2) 32:39 Episode Artwork A Hieroglyphic World: Social Rules in Wharton's Novel of Manners (The Age of Innocence, Part 1) 32:32 Episode Artwork Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" and Hemingway's Flawed Characters (The Sun Also Rises, Part 2) 27:55 Episode Artwork Don't Try This At Home: Hemingway's First Major Novel (The Sun Also Rises, Part 1) 30:51 Episode Artwork The World Was All Before Them (Paradise Lost, Part 2) 33:01 Episode Artwork Milton Retweets His Way to Revolution (Well, He Tries) (Paradise Lost, Part 1) 34:29 Episode Artwork A Man Half Bull and a Bull Half Man (Metamorphoses, Part 2) 26:12 Episode Artwork The Secret Poet (Metamorphoses, Part 1) 29:09 Episode Artwork The Hog-Squeal of the Universe (The Jungle, Part 2) 35:13 Episode Artwork Meatpacking and Muckraking (The Jungle, Part 1) 30:49 Episode Artwork Nasty, Brutish, and Short (Leviathan, Part 2) 29:41 Episode Artwork Artificial Kings (Leviathan, Part 1) 29:22 Episode Artwork Imps and Snatchers and Spirits, Oh My! (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Part 2) 32:05