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History Of Antinatalism
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Book Synopsis History of Antinatalism by : Michal Kutás
Download or read book History of Antinatalism written by Michal Kutás and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collective monography deals with the history of antinatalism. It aims to supplement Ken Coates՚ monography Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar. Therefore, after rejecting David Benatars՚ analytical approach, it starts with the intellectual history of antinatalism in antiquity and the Middle Ages in general, with a focus on neglected tenets of the asymmetry and quality arguments in Aristotle's Eudemus and in early Christianity. Then it carries on with modern age up to the present, with a focus on the rarely identified precursors of the asymmetry argument, followed by analyses of some antinatalistic elements in Vladimir Solovyov, and of the almost unknown antinatalistic author bearing the pen name Kurnig. Finally, it returns to the contemporary antinatalism, this time focused on its implications in sexual ethics and in the ethics of suicide.
Book Synopsis Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar by : Ken Coates
Download or read book Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar written by Ken Coates and published by First Edition Design Pub.. This book was released on 2014-03-24 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last few decades seem to have begun what has been called 'the childless revolution'. In developed countries, increasingly people are choosing not to have children. The causes of this 'revolution' are many including the belief that to create a new life is to subject someone unnecessarily, and without their consent, to life's many sufferings including death. This belief and its underlying philosophy is known as anti-natalism. There has been a recent resurgence of this philosophy, with David Benatar's book Better Never To Have Been (2006) as a major catalyst. Anti-natalism can be seen as part of a broader philosophy, described here as Rejectionism, which finds existence -directly or indirectly, i.e. as procreation - as deeply problematic and unacceptable. The book traces the development of this philosophy from its ancient religious roots in Hinduism (Moksha) and Buddhism (Nirvana) to its most modern articulation by the South African philosopher David Benatar. It examines the contribution to rejectionist thought by Schopenhauer and von Hartmann in the 19th century and Zapffe, a little known Norwegian thinker, in the 20th century, and most recently by Benatar. Benatar and Zapffe represent this approach most clearly as anti-natalism. The book also devotes a chapter to the literary expression of rejectionist philosophy in the works of Samuel Beckett and J.P.Sartre. In sum, far from being an esoteric doctrine rejectionism has been a major presence in human history straddling all three major cultural forms - religious, philosophical and literary. The book argues that anti-natal philosophy and its practice owe a great deal to three major developments: secularization, liberalization of social attitudes, and technological advances (contraception). Anti-natal attitudes and practice should therefore be seen as a part of 'progress' in that these developments are widening our choice of lifestyles and attitudes to existence. In sum, The book argues that anti-natalism needs to be taken seriously and considered as a legitimate view of a modern, secular civilization. Secondly, the book seeks to situate current anti-natalist thought in its historical and philosophical perspective. Finally, it argues that in order to develop anti-natalism further it needs to be institutionalized as a form rational 'philosophy of life', and more attention needs to be paid to the problems and prospect of putting this philosophy into practice.
Book Synopsis Better Never to Have Been by : David Benatar
Download or read book Better Never to Have Been written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people believe that they were either benefited or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. David Benatar presents a startling challenge to these assumptions. He argues that people systematically overestimate the quality of their life, and suffer quite serious harms by coming into existence.
Book Synopsis The Childfree Christ: Antinatalism in Early Christianity by : Theophile de Giraud
Download or read book The Childfree Christ: Antinatalism in Early Christianity written by Theophile de Giraud and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-10 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not a year goes by without the Pope or another Christian dignitary singing the praises of fecundity and the virtues of family, preferably numerous. However, the reading of the Gospels makes us discover a Christ fiercely hostile to the biological family and even more to reproduction. Among the few thinkers who have considered the issue, Kierkegaard will reach the conclusion that Christianity aimed at "blocking our species". In the wake of Christ, who remained childfree while urging us to become eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, the early Church fathers will also glorify perpetual virginity and disparage carnal fertility. Saint Augustine even wished that everyone would refrain from procreating so that the end of the world would be hastened! Would the natalism of contemporary Christian churches be the greatest deception of all time? In any case, it is an absolute betrayal, which, in this century of global overpopulation, is even more disastrous than that of Judas. The purpose of this essay will be to rediscover a truth carefully concealed: the original Christianity was indeed an antinatalism.About the author: Théophile de Giraud is a French-speaking Belgian writer born in 1968. He is one of the main contemporary advocates of antinatalism in the French language. In favour of the childfree cause, he organized three editions of a Non-Parents Day, which took place in Brussels and Paris between 2009 and 2011. Among other works, he has written an essay entitled: L'art de guillotiner les procréateurs: manifeste antinataliste (The Art of Guillotining Procreators: An Antinatalist Manifesto). This book was published in French in 2006 and is currently being translated into English.
Book Synopsis The Human Predicament by : David Benatar
Download or read book The Human Predicament written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our deaths by suicide? Many people ask these big questions -- and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. The Human Predicament invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition. David Benatar here offers a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism about the central questions of human existence. He argues that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we might be. He maintains that the quality of life, although less bad for some than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Worse, death is generally not a solution; in fact, it exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. While it can release us from suffering, it imposes another cost - annihilation. This state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about many things, including immortality and suicide, and how we should think about the possibility of deeper meaning in our lives. Ultimately, this thoughtful, provocative, and deeply candid treatment of life's big questions will interest anyone who has contemplated why we are here, and what the answer means for how we should live.
Book Synopsis Why Have Children? by : Christine Overall
Download or read book Why Have Children? written by Christine Overall and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-02-03 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging exploration of whether or not choosing to procreate can be morally justified—and if so, how. In contemporary Western society, people are more often called upon to justify the choice not to have children than they are to supply reasons for having them. In this book, Christine Overall maintains that the burden of proof should be reversed: that the choice to have children calls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to. Arguing that the choice to have children is not just a prudential or pragmatic decision but one with ethical repercussions, Overall offers a wide-ranging exploration of how we might think systematically and deeply about this fundamental aspect of human life. Writing from a feminist perspective, she also acknowledges the inevitably gendered nature of the decision; the choice has different meanings, implications, and risks for women than it has for men. After considering a series of ethical approaches to procreation, and finding them inadequate or incomplete, Overall offers instead a novel argument. Exploring the nature of the biological parent-child relationship—which is not only genetic but also psychological, physical, intellectual, and moral—she argues that the formation of that relationship is the best possible reason for choosing to have a child.
Book Synopsis The Risk of a Lifetime by : Rivka Weinberg
Download or read book The Risk of a Lifetime written by Rivka Weinberg and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This original, comprehensive theory of procreative ethics explains what kind of act procreation is and when we may permissibly engage in it. In order to ascertain when the procreative risk is permissible to impose, Weinberg proposes contractualist principles to fairly attend to the interests prospective parents have in procreating and the interests future people have in a life of human flourishing. The book presents a solution to the non-identity problem as well as dilemmas regarding our liberal principles of autonomy, consent, and equality, which may seem to be in tension with our procreative practices.
Book Synopsis Confessions of an Antinatalist by : Jim Crawford
Download or read book Confessions of an Antinatalist written by Jim Crawford and published by . This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book No Baby No Cry written by Martin Smith and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013-04-11 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is for Christians, if you don't wear that label, trust me, this isn't for you. However if you do, then I very much hope you will read it. In this book I make the argument for Christians NOT to have children. That might seem absurd given the vast number of Christian publications extolling the virtues of child bearing, and the general veneration of family in Christian culture. However I think the case is strong, and I believe the majority view on this issue misunderstands the bible in a very fundamental way. Even if you go on to have children, or if you have children already, I believe you would do well to hear me out. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, looks at the motivations that lie behind the decision to have children, the consequences of that decision, and why not having children may be considered a more ethical choice. The arguments presented apply to believer and non-believer alike. In part 2, we look at things from an exclusively Christian perspective. Comparing the ideas expressed in Christian culture and literature to what the Bible actually says, asking questions about the centrality of family and what the consequences of having children are, in the Christian world view.
Book Synopsis The Conspiracy against the Human Race by : Thomas Ligotti
Download or read book The Conspiracy against the Human Race written by Thomas Ligotti and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality. "There is a signature motif discernible in both works of philosophical pessimism and supernatural horror. It may be stated thus: Behind the scenes of life lurks something pernicious that makes a nightmare of our world." His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy. At once a guidebook to pessimistic thought and a relentless critique of humanity's employment of self-deception to cope with the pervasive suffering of their existence, The Conspiracy against the Human Race may just convince readers that there is more than a measure of truth in the despairing yet unexpectedly liberating negativity that is widely considered a hallmark of Ligotti's work.
Book Synopsis Every Cradle Is a Grave by : Sarah Perry
Download or read book Every Cradle Is a Grave written by Sarah Perry and published by . This book was released on 2014-11-21 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of years ago, humans just happened. Accidents of environment and genetics contributed to the emergence of sentient beings like us. Today, however, people no longer "just happen"; they are created by the voluntary acts of other people. This book examines several questions about the ethics of human existence. Is it a good thing, for humans, that humans "happened"? Is it ethical to keep making new humans, now that reproduction is under our control? And given that a person exists (through no fault or choice of his own), is it immoral or irrational for him to refuse to live out his natural lifespan? Sarah Perry answers these questions in the negative--not out of misanthropy, but out of empathy for human suffering and respect for human autonomy. "Every Cradle Is a Grave undertakes a difficult task-to write on discomforting matters from a perspective that is socially unsanctioned. Strange as it may seem to some of us, there are scads of volumes that praise the abuses we endure in our lives. Such works have always been well thumbed, though they are only prayer-books for the purpose of worshiping misery. Sarah Perry is more honest and less perverse on the subject of suffering, treating pain as both a philosophical and a practical problem to which, it is admitted, there is no ultimate solution. Nonetheless, in her view there still remains intelligence and compassion as a means for confronting the insoluble. That is what makes this book as much a necessity as it is a rarity." --Thomas Ligotti, author of The Conspiracy against the Human Race Meaning. Value. Birth. Death. Sanctity. These subjects and others are reexamined through the lens of suicide rights and procreation ethics in Sarah Perry's Every Cradle Is a Grave. If you're at all fond of asking the truly Big Questions, this is the read you've been waiting for. Why are we here, and why do we stay? Prepare to have your assumptions dissected and turned on their heads. It's a bumpy ride, but then, so is this little journey we're on as we spin aimlessly around a sun that's destined to burn out, just as surely as each individual life will one day fall back down into the mud from which all life arises. Asking the hard questions is one thing, but hearing answers that might shake us to the core can be something else again. --Jim Crawford, author of Confessions of an Antinatalist "In this eminently rational, clear and serious book, Sarah Perry is courageous and strong enough to confront the forbidden truths of human life. Every Cradle Is a Grave should be mandatory reading for anyone who plans to have children." -Mikita Brottman, author of Thirteen Girls
Book Synopsis Aristotle on the Concept of Shared Life by : Sara Brill
Download or read book Aristotle on the Concept of Shared Life written by Sara Brill and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the terms of Aristotle's Politics, to be alive is to instantiate a form of rule. In the growth of plants, the perceptual capacities and movement of animals, and the impulse that motivates thinking, speaking, and deliberating Aristotle sees the working of a powerful generative force come to expression in an array of forms of life, and it is in these, if anywhere, that one could find the resources needed for a philosophic account of the nature of life as such. Aristotle on the Concept of Shared Life explores this intertwining of power and life in Aristotle's thought, and argues that Aristotle locates the foundation of human political life in the capacity to share one's most vital activities with others. A comprehensive study of the relationality which shared life reveals tells us something essential about Aristotle's approach to human political phenomena; namely, that they arise as forms of intimacy whose political character can only be seen when viewed in the context of Aristotle's larger inquiries into animal life, where they emerge not as categorically distinct from animal sociality, but as intensifications of it. Tracing the human capacity to share life thus illuminates the interrelation between the zoological, ethical, and political lenses through which Aristotle pursues his investigation of the polis. In following this connection, this volume also examines — and critically evaluates — the reception of Aristotle's political thought in some of the most influential concepts of contemporary critical theory.
Download or read book Nations written by Azar Gat and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking study of the foundations of nationalism, exposing its antiquity, strong links with ethnicity and roots in human nature.
Book Synopsis The Antinatalism Magazine by : Francois Tremblay
Download or read book The Antinatalism Magazine written by Francois Tremblay and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-02 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Antinatalism Magazine is the world's first magazine dedicated to philosophy of antinatalism. Antinatalism magazine aims to develop and promote the philosophy of antinatalism, and to facilitate discussion on the philosophy of antinatalism. Publication interests of The Antinatalism Magazine includes, but not limited to, philanthropic antinatalism, misanthropic antinatalism, antintalism advocacy, activism, movement, organization and strategy, religious antinatalism, criticism of antinatalism, hedonistic antinatalism, non-human animal (zoophilic) antinatalism, wild animal suffering, wildlife antinatalism and suffering focused ethics.Submission policyInquiries and submissions should be sent to the editor, Jiwoon Hwang ([email protected]).By sending your article, you confirm that you have the rights to the article, and grants the magazine the right to reproduce your article on the website or on the (paper or electronic) magazine. We reserve the right to edit your submission for publication. We can not guarantee that your article will be accepted for publication. Submissions in languages other than English are welcome. Submission can be also about criticism of antinatalism.
Download or read book Dark Matters written by Mara van der Lugt and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-09-26 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intellectual history of the philosophers who grappled with the problem of evil, and the case for why pessimism still holds moral value for us today In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers engaged in heated debates on the question of how God could have allowed evil and suffering in a creation that is supposedly good. Dark Matters traces how the competing philosophical traditions of optimism and pessimism arose from early modern debates about the problem of evil, and makes a compelling case for the rediscovery of pessimism as a source for compassion, consolation, and perhaps even hope. Bringing to life one of the most vibrant eras in the history of philosophy, Mara van der Lugt discusses legendary figures such as Leibniz, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, and Schopenhauer. She also introduces readers to less familiar names, such as Bayle, King, La Mettrie, and Maupertuis. Van der Lugt describes not only how the earliest optimists and pessimists were deeply concerned with finding an answer to the question of the value of existence that does justice to the reality of human suffering, but also how they were fundamentally divided over what such an answer should look like. A breathtaking work of intellectual history by one of today's leading scholars, Dark Matters reveals how the crucial moral aim of pessimism is to find a way of speaking about suffering that offers consolation and does justice to the fragility of life.
Book Synopsis Figuring Out the Past by : Peter Turchin
Download or read book Figuring Out the Past written by Peter Turchin and published by The Economist. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the world records that define our history and jump headfirst into the past using scientific data that reveals accurate and insightful answers to life’s biggest questions. What was history's biggest empire? Or the tallest building of the ancient world? What was the plumbing like in medieval Byzantium? The average wage in the Mughal Empire? Where did scientific writing first emerge? What was the bloodiest ever ritual human sacrifice? We are used to thinking about history in terms of stories. Yet we understand our own world through data: cast arrays of statistics that reveal the workings of our societies. In Figuring Out the Past, radical historians Peter Turchin and Dan Hoyer dive into the numbers that reveal the true shape of the past, drawing on their own Seshat project, a staggeringly ambitious attempt to log every data point that can be gathered for every society that has ever existed. This book does more than tell the story of humanity: it shows you the big picture, by the numbers.
Book Synopsis Permissible Progeny? by : Sarah Hannan
Download or read book Permissible Progeny? written by Sarah Hannan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contributes to the growing literature on the morality of procreation and parenting. About half of the chapters take up questions about the morality of bringing children into existence. They discuss the following questions: Is it wrong to create human life? Is there a connection between the problem of evil and the morality of procreation? Could there be a duty to procreate? How do the environmental harms imposed by procreation affect its moral status? Given these costs, is the value of establishing genetic ties ever significant enough to render procreation morally permissible? And how should government respond to peoples' motives for procreating? The other half of the volume considers moral and political questions about adoption and parenting. One chapter considers whether the choice to become a parent can be rational. The two following chapters take up the regulation of adoption, focusing on whether the special burdens placed on adoptive parents, as compared to biological parents, can be morally justified. The book concludes by considering how we should conceive of adequacy standards in parenting and what resources we owe to children. This collection builds on existing literature by advancing new arguments and novel perspectives on existing debates. It also raises new issues deserving of our attention. As a whole it is sure to generate further philosophical debate on pressing and rich questions surrounding the bearing and rearing of children.
