Download or read book Summary of David Benatar s The Human Predicament written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-04-06T22:59:00Z with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The human condition is a tragic one. Life has no meaning from a cosmic perspective, and our lives have no broader point or purpose. Our quality of life is as poor as it is. Death does not help us overcome our cosmic meaninglessness, and it only makes things worse. #2 Death is bad, and while some have tried to cope by denying it, there is no avoiding it. The human predicament is that we are mortal, and we must face this fact. #3 There is a distinction between optimism and pessimism in the realm of the facts. An optimist believes that a terrible fate will not befall him, whereas a pessimist believes that he will fall victim to that fate. They both agree that the fate is terrible, but they have differing views about whether it will occur. #4 Optimism and pessimism are both matters of degree rather than binary positions. If some feature of the human condition is negative, it can be more or less negative. If some other feature is positive, then, similarly, it can be more or less positive.
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 192 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.
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: First published in paperback in 2008. Reprinted 2009, 2013.
Download or read book The Human Predicament written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are our lives meaningless? Is death bad? Would immortality be better? Alternatively, should we hasten our deaths by acts of suicide? Many people are tempted to offer comforting optimistic answers to these big questions. The Human Predicament offers a less sanguine assessment, and defends a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism.
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.
Download or read book The Second Sexism written by David Benatar and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the manifestation of sexism against women is widely acknowledged, few people take seriously the idea that males are also the victims of many and quite serious forms of sex discrimination. So unrecognized is this form of sexism that the mere mention of it will be laughable to some. Yet women are typically exempt from military conscription even where men are forced into battle and risk injury, emotional repercussions, and death. Males are more often victims of violent crime, as well as of legalized violence such as corporal punishment. Sexual assault of males is often taken less seriously. Fathers are less likely to win custody of their children following divorce. In this book, philosophy professor David Benatar provides details of these and other examples of what he calls the “second sexism.” He discusses what sexism is, responds to the objections of those who would deny that there is a second sexism, and shows how ignorance of or flippancy about discrimination against males undermines the fight against sex discrimination more generally.
Download or read book Life Death and Meaning written by David Benatar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-03-28 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life, Death, and Meaning is designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy.
Download or read book Discomfort and Moral Impediment written by Julio Cabrera and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the connections between the current situation of human beings in the world and ethics, connecting suffering with morality. The human condition can be described as marked by sensible suffering and moral difficulty. As such, this text discusses the rapports between this sensible and moral discomfort and the two moral requirements of not manipulating and not harming. The issue of procreation also arises within this context, specifically with regards to the conditions for responsible procreation and the moral quality of abstention.
Download or read book Ethics for Everyday with Free Ethics PowerWeb written by Professor and Head of Philosophy David Benatar and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This high quality 2 track hypnotherapy CD by hypnotherapist Glenn Harrold, combines powerful clinical hypnotherapy techniques with state of the art digital recording technology.
Download or read book Debating Procreation written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While procreation is ubiquitous, attention to the ethical issues involved in creating children is relatively rare. In Debating Procreation, David Benatar and David Wasserman take opposing views on this important question. David Benatar argues for the anti-natalist view that it is always wrong to bring new people into existence. He argues that coming into existence is always a serious harm and that even if it were not always so, the risk of serious harm is sufficiently great to make procreation wrong. In addition to these "philanthropic" arguments, he advances the "misanthropic" one that because humans are so defective and cause vast amounts of harm, it is wrong to create more of them. David Wasserman defends procreation against the anti-natalist challenge. He outlines a variety of moderate pro-natalist positions, which all see procreation as often permissible but never required. After criticizing the main anti-natalist arguments, he reviews those pronatalist positions. He argues that constraints on procreation are best understood in terms of the role morality of prospective parents, considers different views of that role morality, and argues for one that imposes only limited constraints based on the well-being of the future child. He then argues that the expected good of a future child and of the parent-child relationship can provide a strong justification for procreation in the face of expected adversities without giving individuals any moral reason to procreate
Download or read book Death and the Afterlife written by Samuel Scheffler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-09 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what extent would you remain committed to your current projects and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for cancer? Would couples still want children? In Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show that the continued life of the human race after our deaths--the "afterlife" of the title--matters to us to an astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed, Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Death and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four distinguished philosophers--Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf--who discuss Scheffler's ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final reply.
Download or read book Cutting to the Core written by David Benatar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surgery inevitably inflicts some harm on the body. At the very least, it damages the tissue that is cut. These harms often are clearly outweighed by the overall benefits to the patient. However, where the benefits do not outweigh the harms or where they do not clearly do so, surgical interventions become morally contested. Cutting to the Core examines a number of such surgeries, including infant male circumcision and cutting the genitals of female children, the separation of conjoined twins, surgical sex assignment of intersex children and the surgical re-assignment of transsexuals, limb and face transplantation, cosmetic surgery, and placebo surgery. When, if ever, do the benefits of these surgeries outweigh their costs? May a surgeon perform dangerous procedures that are not clearly to the patient's benefit, even if the patient consents to them? May a surgeon perform any surgery on a minor patient if there are no clear benefits to that child? These and other related questions are the core themes of this collection of essays.
Download or read book The Fall of the University of Cape Town written by David Benatar and published by Politicsweb Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Destructive forces have been eroding the University of Cape Town, Africa's leading university. This book tells the sad, true tale of what has been transpiring. It is a saga of lunacy, criminality, pandering, and identity politics. The mad and the bad - the deranged, deluded, the depraved - have been granted endless latitude in bullying and abusing others. The decline began in 2015 with the Rhodes Must Fall protest that resulted in the offending statue's removal within a month, and which spawned similar protests abroad. Emboldened by their local success, the protestors issued new and ever-increasing demands later that year and then again in 2016 and 2017. Their methods also became criminal - including intimidation, assault, and arson. The university leadership capitulated to this behaviour, and this fostered a broader and now pervasive toxic environment within the institution. These developments offer important lessons for universities around the world that are yielding to the forces of a faux "progressivism".
Download or read book Pessimism written by Joshua Foa Dienstag and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pessimism claims an impressive following--from Rousseau, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, to Freud, Camus, and Foucault. Yet "pessimist" remains a term of abuse--an accusation of a bad attitude--or the diagnosis of an unhappy psychological state. Pessimism is thought of as an exclusively negative stance that inevitably leads to resignation or despair. Even when pessimism looks like utter truth, we are told that it makes the worst of a bad situation. Bad for the individual, worse for the species--who would actually counsel pessimism? Joshua Foa Dienstag does. In Pessimism, he challenges the received wisdom about pessimism, arguing that there is an unrecognized yet coherent and vibrant pessimistic philosophical tradition. More than that, he argues that pessimistic thought may provide a critically needed alternative to the increasingly untenable progressivist ideas that have dominated thinking about politics throughout the modern period. Laying out powerful grounds for pessimism's claim that progress is not an enduring feature of human history, Dienstag argues that political theory must begin from this predicament. He persuasively shows that pessimism has been--and can again be--an energizing and even liberating philosophy, an ethic of radical possibility and not just a criticism of faith. The goal--of both the pessimistic spirit and of this fascinating account of pessimism--is not to depress us, but to edify us about our condition and to fortify us for life in a disordered and disenchanted universe.
Download or read book Why Veganism Matters written by Gary L. Francione and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people care about animals, but only a tiny fraction are vegan. The rest often think of veganism as an extreme position. They certainly do not believe that they have a moral obligation to become vegan. Gary L. Francione—the leading and most provocative scholar of animal rights theory and law—demonstrates that veganism is a moral imperative and a matter of justice. He shows that there is a contradiction in thinking that animals matter morally if one is also not vegan, and he explains why this belief should logically lead all who hold it to veganism. Francione dismantles the conventional wisdom that it is acceptable to use and kill animals as long as we do so “humanely.” He argues that if animals matter morally, they must have the right not to be used as property. That means that we cannot eat them, wear them, use them, or otherwise treat them as resources or commodities. Why Veganism Matters presents the case for the personhood of nonhuman animals and for veganism in a clear and accessible way that does not require any philosophical or legal background. This book offers a persuasive and powerful argument for all readers who care about animals but are not sure whether they have a moral obligation to be vegan.
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 272 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.
Download or read book Conversations about the Meaning of Life written by Thaddeus Metz and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-06-29 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do Mother Theresa, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the exploration of Mars teach us about the meaning of life? World-renowned experts, David Benatar and Thaddeus Metz, give you their answers to life's biggest question. Spoiler alert: it isn't 42. We've all felt a unique sense of isolation over the past year. Is there a way to find meaning in this brave new world? Benatar argues that from the cosmic perspective, life on this pale blue dot has almost no significance. But Metz holds a more optimistic view. Discover his rules for how anyone can enrich their lives through truth, beauty, and goodness. Conversations about the Meaning of Life is a discussion with two of the most important thinkers on the topic, and includes an exclusive debate between them. If you strive to lead a more meaningful existence, and want an accessible, intelligent guide to the ultimate question, you'll love this book. Buy it now. "This is, in my opinion, the best dialogue about the meaning of life in the literature. The interlocutors are two of the most important philosophers in the field and it is enlightening to hear these two titans engaging each other directly. Anyone interested in the meaning of life should read this brief and accessible work." - John G Messerly, author of The Meaning of Life.
