6.2 KiB
| title | date | techne | episteme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antinatalism FAQ | 2011-11-16 | :incomplete | :believed |
If only I could show you the places I have seen, you might understand the things I say. I have been to the Desolate Lands, wandered by those souls who still see the lands of the living but wear the cloak of the dead. Blind to their own ends, they cry, passing through one another like shadows in the dying light of day. I have travelled to where souls rot in torment, pierced with the jagged shards of life and vision, clinging to memory - regrets of the flesh. I saw that this prison was of their own making, and that the key was in unknowing, in release... and still, I travelled on.
And finally, I came to the place where souls go to die. Where the mirrored and worn spirits fall into an endless sea of grey, mirrored glass, and I lowered myself within, and lay there among them, and I almost did not return.
And do you know what I found there? There, among the silent and battered shells of the innumerable? Peace. Enlightenment. Truth. Only then did I realize that this place, this "Life", is an abomination, a horrible distortion of the natural order. This "Life", who mothered Pain, and Fear, and Envy... these twisted children who exist only because we are here to feed them, to nourish them. This "Life", this afterthought - a disturbance, a mere ripple in that great, dead sea, not even the cause, but merely an effect, sending these souls upwards, screaming for release from the day they are torn from their waters! The effect of what?!
I do not know. Nor do I care.
Have you ever spoken with the dead? Called to them from this side? Called them from their silent rest? Do you know what it is that they feel? Pain. Pain, when torn into this wakefulness, this reminder of the chaos from which they had escaped. Pain - for having to live. There will be no more pain. There will be no more chaos.
-- Kerghan ([video][Kerghan Speech])
Why You Got Screwed
Why you have been harmed by coming into existence and nothing you can do will make up for it.
Range of Positions
Pronatalism
It is never wrong to bring someone into existence.
Minor Antinatalism
There are some beings who are worse off, but on average, it works out. This seems like the majority view.
Major Antinatalism
Some beings are better off alive, but on average, the harm dominates. So far, this is for example the position of many transhumanists, who think that humanity has a possible good future, but so far has mostly suffered. It is not too unusual for people to hold off on having children because the world is too horrible right now.
Categorical Antinatalism
It is always wrong to bring someone into existence. Every being is worse off alive. Even Manabi.
Arguments for Antinatalism
Escape from Kaldor Hicks
The Asymmetry
What about future versions of yourself?
Self, person-moments. Should you kill yourself right now?
Arguments against Antinatalism
Your suffering is a First World Problem.
An anonymous commenter on The View from Hell provides an example of this common argument:
I think your blog's title is a total misnomer: if you're still able (emotionally, physically and financially) to enjoy drugs, sex, running and talking about philosophy as you yourself claim you clearly haven't got the slightest notion of what hell consists of.
In other words, if there are many people who are much worse off than you, you can't claim to suffer.
I find that a very strange argument. If even privileged people suffer greatly, isn't that an argument for antinatalism, namely that even greatly improved average circumstances don't fix suffering? Shouldn't we therefore conclude that many more people suffer than we typically think?
What the arguments seems to be doing is to critize people for requesting help. Basically, if someone else needs help much more than you, you shouldn't be bringing your pain to our attention. You're just wasting resources that way. That's not a bad point, but it is not an argument against preventing births. If less people are made, less will suffer and we can take better care of the rest.
Practical Implications
Is this just a contrarian position? Are you merely signalling how deep and unconventional you are? After all, even professional ethicists aren't more ethical on average1.
Moral Imperative
Comparison to Vampire RPG. In it, you are a recently turned vampire who has to feed on the living to survive. Your constant hunger for blood makes it likely that you will one day lose control and kill whoever you're feeding off. You must exploit a large number of humans merely to survive. You know that this is wrong, yet your own need to survive makes you do it anyway. You could do the right thing anytime and just step out into the sun tomorrow. Yet you don't. No matter what you tell yourself, you are evil.2
Religious Analogies
This is not a completely serious section. It doesn't provide actual arguments, really. Just because some religion or old ascetic supported something like antinatalism, doesn't mean it's right. But I still find it interesting how common the position actually is. There is obvious [memetic][meme] pressure to remove antinatalism from any religion, but it still survives for some reason.
Gnosticism
Even Jesus was an Antinatalist.
A minor remark: antinatalism also provides a solution to Anselm's ontological argument, like so:
- God is the greatest possible being. (Definition)
- It is best to not exist. (Antinatalism)
- Therefore, God does not exist.
Shakers
How not to do it.