Anti-Natalism

Overthink

Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 549 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2022

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it really better to exist than not exist? With rampant climate destruction, income inequality, and suffering in the world, some have begun to question whether it is ethical to create new life, knowing it will suffer. In episode 46 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the intellectual tradition of anti-natalism. Why did Schopenhauer think that life was ultimately dominated by suffering, and why did Nietzsche think he was so wrong? How has anti-natalism emerged out of the trend of pessimism, and how can we be optimistic about generating new life in what can at times be such a hard world?

Works Discussed

Soul (2020)
Capernaum (2018)
David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
Elizabeth Harman, “Critical Study of David Benatar. Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)
Thaddeus Metz, “Are Lives Worth Creating?”
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
Théophile de Giraud, The Art of Guillotining the Procreators: Anti-Natalist Manifesto
Plato, The Laws

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we jump into today's episode, we would like to give a content warning.
0:04.5	In what follows, we discuss suicide.
0:13.5	Hi, I'm David Peña Guzman.
0:15.9	And I'm Ellie Anderson.
0:17.5	Welcome to Overthink.
0:19.2	The podcast were two friends who are also professors put philosophy
0:23.6	in dialogue with the everyday. Because big ideas are within everyone's reach.
0:37.4	Hello everyone. Hello, everyone. We are so excited to share with you the contents of today's episode. But before we do that, we have a very rare ask.
0:46.5	Very rare. We are at almost 100 reviews. On Apple. Yes, on Apple. And we would love it if you would take a minute of your
0:57.0	lovely time to write a review for us, a fair review, but preferably an amazing review. Yeah, I know
1:03.5	five stars, please. We know that some of you don't listen to us on Apple. Spotify has recently
1:10.0	introduced reviews. So if you listen to us on Spotify, please review us there. But if you don't have time for a review, you can also just give us a simple rating. Here's your moment. We're building it into the episode. Pull out your phone. Go to the app of choice. Go ahead. Click on our show. You're probably already there because you're listening to it.
1:27.7	Scroll down to the bottom and under ratings or reviews, please just hit this five-star button.
1:35.0	Do do do do do do do do do do.
1:42.5	Oh, well, you really went off the rails there, David. Okay, that's probably enough time because now people are like, I am tuning out. Thank you all. We appreciate you so much. We really want to keep overthink going for as long as we possibly can. And, yeah, reviews are really important for folks eyeing the show for the first time. And so we really appreciate your
2:01.8	support. Hey, and if by the time you're listening to this episode, we have already well-exceeded
2:06.3	100 reviews, please, please, please still do this. It means a lot to us. Yeah, because if by now
2:11.6	you're still listening, chances are you kind of love us. Okay, okay, okay.
2:18.5	We are launching in to the content of today's episode, anti-natalism.
2:24.2	Ellie, in 2019, there was a major controversy involving an Indian man by the name of Raphael Samuel,
2:31.8	who very publicly made the claim that he intended to sue his
2:36.0	parents for having committed the great injustice of, done, done, having brought him into the world.
	...

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