South African Journal of Philosophy 31 (1):94-103 (2012)
Authors |
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Abstract |
Benatar’s central argument for antinatalism develops an asymmetry
between the pain and pleasure in a potential life. I am going to present
an alternative route to the antinatalist conclusion. I argue that duties
require victims and that as a result there is no duty to create the
pleasures contained within a prospective life but a duty not to create
any of its sufferings. My argument can supplement Benatar’s, but it
also enjoys some advantages: it achieves a better fit with our intuitions;
it does not require us to acknowledge that life is a harm, or that
a world devoid of life is a good thing; and it is easy to see why it does
not have any pro-mortalist implications.
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Keywords | Antinatalism Benatar Having children Having kids Morality of procreation Prima Facie duties Ethics of procreation Reproductive ethics Parenthood |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1080/02580136.2012.10751770 |
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References found in this work BETA
Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm.Seana Shiffrin - 1999 - Legal Theory 5 (2):117-148.
View all 10 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
The Hypothetical Consent Objection to Anti-Natalism.Asheel Singh - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (5):1135-1150.
Does the Lack of Cosmic Meaning Make Our Lives Bad?Thaddeus Metz - 2022 - Journal of Value Inquiry 56 (1):37-50.
Genome Editing for Longer Lives: The Problem of Loneliness.C. S. Wareham - 2020 - Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17 (2):309-314.
Can Anti-Natalists Oppose Human Extinction? The Harm-Benefit Asymmetry, Person-Uploading, and Human Enhancement.Phil Torres - 2020 - South African Journal of Philosophy 39 (3):229-245.
Better to Return Whence We Came.Ema Sullivan-Bissett - 2022 - Journal of Value Inquiry 56 (1):85-100.
View all 6 citations / Add more citations
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