Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence 1st Edition by David Benatar (PDF)

Description

Most people believe that they were either benefited or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. Thus, if they ever do reflect on whether they should bring others into existence—rather than having children without even thinking about whether they should—they presume that they do them no harm. Better Never to Have Been challenges these assumptions. David Benatar argues that coming into existence is always a serious harm. Although the good things in one’s life make one’s life go better than it otherwise would have gone, one could not have been deprived by their absence if one had not existed. Those who never exist cannot be deprived. However, by coming into existence one does suffer quite serious harms that could not have befallen one had one not come into existence. Drawing on the relevant psychological literature, the author shows that there are a number of well-documented features of human psychology that explain why people systematically overestimate the qualityof their lives and why they are thus resistant to the suggestion that they were seriously harmed by being brought into existence. The author then argues for the ‘anti-natal’ view—that it is always wrong to have children—and he shows that combining the anti-natal view with common pro-choice views about foetal moral status yield a “pro-death” view about abortion (at the earlier stages of gestation). Anti-natalism also implies that it would be better if humanity became extinct. Although counter-intuitive for many, that implication is defended, not least by showing that it solves many conundrums of moral theory about population.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author David Benatar is currently Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He received his Ph.D. from that university, did post-doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1993 to 1995, and was Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, from 1995 until 1997. His teaching and research interests are in moral philosophy and related areas. In 1999 he was awarded the University of Cape Town’s Distinguished Teacher Award.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am writing this review in order to dilute the reviews by the religious people who attack Benatar and his life instead of his actual arguments, you know the sissy way out. Not one of his arguments was counter argued. Why? Because it is impossible to counter-argue his arguments in any real sense. But you know they aren’t really attacking Benatar, they are defending themselves, or rather their huge egos. When they hear about the population control, they immediately bring up their supposed “right” to have as many kids as they can, and no, you DON’T have that right, you don’t have the right to give birth to children when you can’t even afford paying for rent, you can’t have 10 kids and see 8 of them die of malnutrition while you believe that their souls are going to fly up to heaven and stay toddlers for the rest of eternity or be reincarnated into another child (and since there are more people every minute then where do these knew reincarnated souls are coming from?). What you have is a RESPONSIBILITY to your unborn children and to the civilization in general. The world is messed up because stupid ignorant and evil people are able to get away with overpopulating themselves, limiting the general availability of resources on the planet and living in total and utter crap-holes while believing that everything is going to be okay eventually and they will all spend an eternity with god and not get bored of existing after 500 trillion years in Heaven. But I don’t want to get caught up in arguing the religious non-sense.But that’s the thing, the only real “argument” that you can make against Benatar is by saying that god said to us: “be fruitful and multiply” – apparently god didn’t know that he had created a limited biosphere that would not be able to support 15 billion people or ever 4 billion people for that matter. So do we HAVE to get religion out of the way first to push Benatar’s argument? and it does not necessarily mean whether we should follow Benatar’s argument or not, what’s important to do FIRST is to see where he is right or not or whether he is MOST LIKELY right or not. The rest of the decision should come later on. It’s not about what makes us good or not, it’s about what the truth is, and if you can’t accept the truth, if you can’t handle the truth, if you see the ugly truth in the back of your head but you immediately veil that with Jeebus then just write a one sentence review on this book by giving it one star and saying the following: “I don’t like the message that the messenger brings and I don’t like the messenger for bringing it up in the first place and I don’t like his nose and I don’t like him making a hole in my faith, therefore I would like to prevent others from reading this book by decreasing its market value”What’s interesting is that Benatar barely even touches the subject of religion in his book, he expects the readers to deal with the fact that the default assumption is that what follows death is exactly what precedes birth, total oblivion. Why would there be anything different than that outcome? well that is where Jeebus comes in and what is where people who are just blatanly afraid of death and non-existence come in, because THAT is the what lies at the core of it. That’s why they are afraid of reality, that’s why they are afraid of being a mortal human being, that’s why they are afraid to accept the fact that we are nothing but the extravagant product of 4 billion years of evolution and 2 billion years of animals eating each other for no good reason whatsoever.Here is a simple equation that I could think of before I even heard of Benatar’s book:existence = possibly good life (good) non-existence = no possibility of good life (-) neutral positionexistence = possibly bad life (bad) non-existence = no possibility of bad life (good)so you can see, that mathematically, (without involving subjective feelings or biases), it makes more sense to not exist because you would be able to avoid the most important thing in this universe – the ABILITY TO BE HARMEDand I’m not just talking about good or bad, like they teach us in kindergarten, I’m talking about cancer-bad, starving to death-bad, losing your family-bad, seeing your parents die-bad, seeing your children die-bad, being maimed-bad, living for 20 years in a nursery home-not-knowing-who-you-are-BADAnd the good life mentioned above in the equation should REALLY BE good, if the equation is to make sense. the good life with as less possibly harm as possible, which not even Bill Gates is immune from. By the way, I wonder if Bill Gates is going to hell, after all he is an atheist, even though he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars into Africa, which in turn actually only compelled people to make more children and inject more harm into the world, yup… I think he is going to hellRight now, there is a zillion of unborn people floating around in ether, in the non-existia, waiting to be born, SCREAMING in agony and cursing us for not bringing them here for 60-70 odd years(if they’re lucky, and then dying peacefully, maybe), scoffing young couples who should be having sex RIGHT NOW and starting new lives instead of wasting the precious sperm. So obviously we all should be doing our utmost to work together and bring as many poor unborn children into this world, right? tell me if that makes any sense.I can almost understand or even respect someone who openly says that they are unhappy, they have an ego, they want to perpetuate their genes and their last names, that they want to have unconditional love by having a child or children, who will in turn make THEM happy and take care of them when they are old. By why should our unfortunate predicaments compel others to work for us, others who might actually tell us that they’d rather not be born at all. Others who have done NOTHING to deserve living on this planet, except being a possible part of us in some remote future.Why is it rational to have children? to be entertained by YOUR children? to work harder for YOUR children who don’t even NEED to exist. Quality of life should always be above quantity. We could have 10 billion people tomorrow or in 9 months rather if we all have sex with each other, we can ALWAYS do that. But what CAN we do to improve of life already living on this planet? I can tell you that you will not be able to do that, unless you make damn sure that your child is going to be a vegetarian, hippy doctor who is going to save people in Africa or Bangladesh. But then again, why would you compel someone to do that when they don’t even exist? Otherwise, it is most likely that your child will be cute for the first few years (awww, aren’t they all?) then start going to school when they don’t want to, hit puberty, talk back to you, survive puberty without getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant, then work for most of your lives, then see you die and then die themselves, and no, you won’t be seeing each other in heaven, since there isn’t one; if you still think you are, I don’t know why you are still reading this. Your child is most likely going to be a meat-eater, which will only increase the amount of suffering in the world. We already slaughter billions of animals who live in crappy conditions every year for our debauchery, ignorance and self-interest. So don’t be talking about the sanctity of life when you openly rip the flesh off of dead animals. Even if you bought the meat, you still are a consumer and thus a contributor to the slaughter. So why not adopt? why not save a life which will be devoured by the African rebel militia tomorrow or be drowned by the flood in Bangladesh, instead of unnecessarily creating a new life? why not be a vegetarian? which isn’t really a whole other subjectIt’s another thing to argue that we have been programed by nature and crude evolutionary forces to have children, but that should not mean that we should not use our brains and outsmart nature when possible. Nature doesn’t care about you, it only cares about your copy, that’s why we have been designed to grow old die – to make way for your offspring, who will in turn repeat the same game thousands of years if not millions. Our ancestors been doing this successfully for quite a long time now. Nature never cared about you. We are born alone, scared and naked, in a world filled with things that can destroy us any minute. A sunset is subjectively beautiful, a green field is subjectively beautiful, but zoom into that field and you will see insects devouring each other. A lion is beautiful, a zebra is beautiful —-you get the rest. Is the symmetrical cancer virus beautiful? Hmm, why would god create that one, or what about lice? I think we could do without lice, polio, black plague, Spanish flu, etc… The fact is that what’s subjectively beautiful should not be the argument here.This whole thing isn’t hard to figure out if you just take an unbiased look at reality. You have to filter your previous misconceptions, your present conceptions, your wants, desires and feelings of self-importance. That way you will see reality for what it is, hopefully. And once you THAT, once you admit that we use our brains and scheming tools to manage reality and make our way in life, once you realize that you at the core are a selfish being, once you realize that you favor your OWN ethnicity that’s why you most likely marry your ethnicity, once you realize that you have been fed that this life was worth living all along all your life instead of being told how bad it is for most people on the planet, once you realize that if there is something good to write on your tombstone like “this person made the world a better place with his or her existence”, once you realize that living a happy life is different from living a truly productive life, once you realize that we have no free will but act in the accordance of the cause-and-effect principle, then everything I wrote above might actually trigger a certain chemical reaction in your brain if it hasn’t already which will compel you to think about this whole thing many times over. Once you do all THAT, only THEN can you know what the problems are and how to fix them, you won’t be able to fix them (given that you want to) by running away from them or creating new problems that should not even need to exist.I’m gonna throw in a little bonus. Especially for those who think bad of me or who want to try to counter-argue me, I’m gonna help you out a bit.For those who want to attack my character or depression – irrelevant to the argument. But for the record, I’m not depressed, I don’t even know the feeling of depression. Whether I should crawl under a rock and die is again irrelevant to the argument. Whether I am in fact 22 or whether I could be 48 is irrelevant to the argument. Whether something really bad happened to me in my life is – irrelevant to the argument, something bad doesn’t need to happen to ME for me to see the problems in this world. Whether I should be ashamed or concerned about your hurt feelings is – irrelevant to the argument. Whether I believed in god at some point is – irrelevant to the argument. Whether I am an actual person typing this or an unbiased computer software is – irrelevant to the argument. Whether I actually practice what I preach is – irrelevant for the argument, but for the record, yes I do. Whether I should be more patient or kind to the religious people who are uncontrollably reproducing – irrelevant to the argument. Whether I should stfu, mind my own business and not “tell people what to do” – irrelevant to the DAMN ARGUMENT. Whether I am a thick-glass geek or/and internet whiner or loser – irrelevant to the argument. Whether lots of girls get turned off when you tell them that you don’t want kids – yeah, that’s true.There is a price for our existence, nothing is free in this world, except cheese in the mousetrap. If we don’t pay for something, someone else does. If you win the first prize, someone else doesn’t. You can all go back to your relatively short and pointless cheese chasing game now, but be warned, you will never get the cheese. We are insatiable, selfish, hungry and horny mice, designed to eat, crap, want, screw, and die, any add-on is just spirituality or religion, void of any productive or intellectual value. We can either limit the price of our existence by becoming humane peaceful beings, or we can all go down in flames, like the selfish beasties that we are.

⭐I am over 70 and decided in my early 20s to remain childfree. I saw many advantages to that decision. I would never have to endure the discomforts and risks of pregnancy and childbirth or the possibility of having a child with disabilities or special needs. I would not have to face the difficulty of dividing my time between parenting and pursuing my educational and career goals. I could avoid passing my family’s genetic problems on to another generation. I did not want to contribute to overpopulation. I could avoid the expense of raising of child, and could, instead, save for my own retirement. I lacked the temperament and patience to be a consistently loving, involved, nurturing parent. I was aware of the strain the addition of a child could sometimes place on a marriage. I was also aware that my decision put me in a very small minority.As I matured, I increasingly valued my decision and began noticing additional reasons that, for me, made it a sound decision. For one, because I have no children or grandchildren, I maintain a relatively small carbon footprint compared to most people in advanced nations. I became interested in reading about and talking to others who had made the same decision. That’s why I was curious about Benatar’s opinions on the matter – so I bought and read this book. It was not easy reading, because he writes from an academic background of philosophy, citing other writers and theories with which I am not familiar. Nevertheless, I got the gist of his ideas.For Benatar, the decision to remain childfree is not a matter of personal convenience. It is a philosophical stance based on the human condition itself. His basic tenet, as I understand it, is that human life, while it offers moments of great joy, is mostly, for many in this world, suffering, struggle, and loss. Millions are born into poverty in which they will face the possibility of starvation, or disease, or death from lack of proper medical care. No matter what humans do, in the end they die – and many die a tedious, lingering, often painful and debilitating death. Moreover, humans inflict a great deal of cruelty, pain, and violence on one another. Humans routinely inflict violence and death on the animal kingdom. Overpopulation is draining the world of its resources and contributing to massive economic inequality. Humans are destroying the planet, as evidenced by the ravages of climate change. For all these reasons, Benatar makes the case that it would be a matter of virtue and kindness to future generations to abstain from bringing more people into the world. I don’t expect that Benatar’s recommendations will have any effect on the birthrate since most people want children for a variety of reasons. For me, however, his viewpoint further validated the wisdom of that decision that I made over 50 years ago.

⭐This is a tough read for a beginner but it is “doable” and a very interesting a none main stream concept that has some merit.I’d also highly recommend Thomas Ligotti’s “The Conspiracy Against The Human Race”, it’s more literary and less heavy on Philosophy and he refers back to this book in his.

⭐I was an antinatalist before reading this book, but now that sentiment has been cemented after having finished it. I recommend anyone to be openminded to the subject matter it covers, because it deviates strongly from the norm, but Benatar’s argument is thought-provoking and not too difficult to digest. At times it felt like he was repeating himself and could have been more concise with his phraseology, but nonetheless it was a good read and gave me comfort in knowing that I am not alone in my beliefs.

⭐Phenomenal. Perhaps the most profound, important and certainly the most eye-opening book I have ever read, and I’ve read alot of philosophy – way back from the Ancient Greeks. If I had it my way, Chapters 2 and 3 would be mandatory reading in all high schools – the topic needs to be discussed and really thought about.A very taboo subject and it couldn’t have had someone better to set it out in such an unbiased and unemotional way. It really does antinatalism justice.

⭐This book discusses the antinatalist position in depth and it explains the philosophy very clearly. It first explains why coming into existence is a harm, the magnitude of the harm and then goes on to discuss the conclusions (that suffering is a harm and life contains a great deal of it) implications on procreation, abortion, population, suicide and the idea that humanity should work towards it’s own extinction.The first few sections of the book where Benatar goes through the basics are admittedly a little dull and dryly-written, however once I reached the last section of the third chapter “A word of suffering”, things started to get interesting as the philosophy of antinatilism is applied to the real world. We get to see the implications it has on civilization, controversial issues and other philosophies.The Kindle version was great for the most part with the only problem being that the table of contents, where the chapter options should be, requires you to click on a “table of contents” button to go to the actual table of contents so you can choose a chapter, but it doesn’t real matter because it’s only one extra click.

⭐The author tries to tackle the subjects of procreation and continuing human existence in a very calculated and logical manner, and the analysis he carries out is masterful and compelling. Even if you end up still disagreeing with the conclusions (hardly surprising as it’s so against human nature and societal values), the book should provide a thought-provoking and well laid out viewpoint you might otherwise have never considered.

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