Abstract

In his recent book The Human Predicament, David Benatar describes the human condition as a tragic predicament, and the upshot is that we ought to refrain from having children and adopt an attitude of pragmatic pessimism. I argue that both his pessimism and anti-natalism are not warranted, and I focus on two features: the lack of meaning in our lives and their poor quality. I begin by arguing that the lack of cosmic meaning does not present a serious reason for regret, and the presence of terrestrial meaning, especially when viewed from the more limited perspectives, is undervalued by Benatar. Then I challenge Benatar’s claims about the quality of our lives, arguing that our resilience to adversity is not something we ought to regret, but to celebrate.

摘要

大卫·贝纳塔尔（David Benatar）在其最新著作《人类困境》中将人类状况描述为悲剧性困境，结果是我们应该避免生孩子，并采取务实的悲观主义态度。我认为他的悲观主义和反犹太主义都不是应有的，我主要关注两个特征：我们生活中缺乏意义和素质低下。首先，我认为缺乏宇宙意义并不能表示遗憾的严重原因，而地球意义的存在，尤其是从更有限的角度来看，则被贝纳塔尔低估了。然后，我挑战贝纳塔尔关于我们生活质量的主张，认为我们对逆境的适应性不是我们应该后悔的事情，而是值得庆祝的事情。