Antinatalism is the philosophical position that asserts a negative value judgment towards birth. It has been advanced (or just suggested) by figures such as Sophocles, Arthur Schopenhauer, Emil Cioran, Brother Theodore[citation needed] and David Benatar.[1]
Sophocles wrote in his Oedipus at Colonus:
It is best not to have been born at all: but, if born, as quickly as possible to return whence one came.[2]
Schopenhauer, in his essay On the Suffering of the World articulates the position as follows:
If the act of procreation were neither the outcome of a desire nor accompanied by feelings of pleasure, but a matter to be decided on the basis of purely rational considerations, is it likely the human race would still exist? Would each of us not rather have felt so much pity for the coming generation as to prefer to spare it the burden of existence, or at least not wish to take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?[3]
Similarly, Benatar argues from the hedonistic premise that the infliction of harm is generally morally wrong and therefore to be avoided, and the intuition that the birth of a new person always entails nontrivial harm to that person, that there exists a moral imperative not to procreate.[1]
The unorthodox Biblical writer Qohelet maintains:
I further observed all the oppression that goes under the sun: the tears of the oppressed, with none to comfort them; and the power of their oppressors—with none to comfort them. Then I accounted those who died long since more fortunate than those who are still living; and happier than either are those who have not yet come into being and have never witnessed the miseries that go under the sun.[4]
See also
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- Childfree
- National Alliance for Optional Parenthood
- Population control in order to decrease population growth
- Voluntary human extinction movement
- Natalism, the counterpoint to antinatalism
- Nietzschean affirmation, a contrasting stance in favor of life, by a one-time follower of Schopenhauer
References
- ^ a b Benatar, David (2006). Better Never to Have Been. Oxford University Press, USA. doi:. ISBN 9780199296422.
- ^ J. Michael Walton (1996). The Greek sense of theatre:Tragedy reviewed (2 ed.). Amsterdam: Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 9783718658527. http://books.google.com/books?id=Oopc-JfjGCEC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=%22It+is+best+not+to+have+been+born+at+all:+but,+if+born,+as+quickly+as+possible+to+return+whence+one+came.%22&source=bl&ots=tp9m2EulOG&sig=ntz4RF-Eyd1oTclPf5LHElvDmrY&hl=en&ei=WiZ-SrfDB8a_tgek8ID_AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=%22It%20is%20best%20not%20to%20have%20been%20born%20at%20all%3A%20but%2C%20if%20born%2C%20as%20quickly%20as%20possible%20to%20return%20whence%20one%20came.%22&f=false. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ^ On the Sufferings of the World, Arthur Schopenhauer.
- ^ Ecclesiastes 4:1-4:3. Hebrew-English Tanakh (first pocket ed.). Philadelphia-pa, usa: Jewish Publication Society. 2003. p. 1770. ISBN 978-0-8276-0766-8.
- Morgan, Philip and Berkowitz King, Rosalind, "Why Have Children in the 21st Century? Biological Predisposition, Social Coercion, Rational Choice", European Journal of Population 17: 3–20, 2001
- Steyn, Mark (December 14, 2007). "Children? Not if you love the planet". Orange County Register (Santa Ana, California). http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/child-birth-homeless-1942317-year-percent. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
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