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Alex Coleridge's avatar

Have you read Better Never to Have Been (or at least chapter 2 of it)? It reads like you haven't. Benatar's argument does not rely on the procreation asymmetry! It relies on a quite different asymmetry, which, in my view, can account for pretty much all of the objections you raise against the procreation asymmetry.

Also, you pay no attention to the vast psychological literature that Benatar cites in Chapter 3 to show that positive assessments of quality of life are unreliable, and other arguments that our quality of life is generally very bad.

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Adam's avatar

"Now, lots of anti-natalists rely on their experience of life when justifying this claim. This is not my experience. I find life to be awesome! I’m happy most of the time, and find periods of misery to be brief and mild. Most people I talk to think this way. And while I do not in general think it’s productive to psychoanalyze people, I will simply note: a lot of anti-natalists are depressed. I think this may be skewing their judgments."

I see this point get made often by pro natalists; Sam Harris has said something to this effect several times on his podcast. But can't the exact same thing be said in reverse? Couldn't the unique cushiness of the average philosopher's life be skewing their judgments about the quality of the average life? Why should we believe that a happy person is more capable of objectivity on this issue than a depressed person?

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