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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