David Benatar is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he teaches courses on Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics.
He is the author and editor of a number of books including “The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys“, “The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions“, and probably most famously, “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm Of Coming Into Existence“.
In today’s episode we explore the concept of antinatalism, the philosophical idea that procreation is morally bad because of the inevitable suffering that beings will experience as a result of their being brought into existence.
We examine David’s assertion that “even the best lives, contrary to popular opinion, ultimately contain more bad than good”, why the negative aspects of life tend to go unrecognized, whether the scale of immorality for bringing life into the world is culturally dependant, why the testimonials of people who claim to have lead a happy life ought not be to taken at face value, the anti-natalist position on sex and abortion, and whether or not there’s anything we can do as a species to make coming into existence worthwhile.
Related Links
r/antinatalism – Anti-natalism community on Reddit (over 12,000 members)
Book Recommendations
Image courtesy: RANT 73