Better never to have been : the harm of coming into existence / David Benatar.

Better never to have been : the harm of coming into existence / David Benatar.

9780199549269 paperback
0199549265 paperback
0199296421 hardcover alkaline paper
9780199296422 hardcover alkaline paper

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

English

xi, 237 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

BD431 .B3919 2006

128

"Most people believe that they were either benefitted or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. Thus, if they ever do reflect on whether they should bring others into existence - rather than having children without even thinking about whether they should - they presume that they do them no harm. Better Never to Have Been challenges these assumptions. David Benatar argues that coming into existence is always a serious harm. Although the good things in one's life make one's life go better than it otherwise would have gone, one could not have been deprived by their absence if one had not existed. Those who never exist cannot be deprived. However, by coming into existence one does suffer quite serious harms that could not have befallen on had one not come into existence. Drawing on the relevant psychological literature, the author shows that there are a number of well-documented features of human psychology that explain why people systematically overestimate the quality of their lives and why they are thus resistant to the suggestion that they were seriously harmed by being brought into existence."--Jacket.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-233) and index.

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