Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Mendeley  

Zotero  

Khoshdel Rohani M, Dehghan Simakani R. The Virtue of Not Being; Reviewing and Criticizing of Benatar’s Approach of Avoiding Ethical Preference of Not Being. IJMEHM 2018; 11 :448-459
URL: http://ijme.tums.ac.ir/article-1-6038-en.html

David Benatar, influenced by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, sees the life of this world full of pain and suffering, and believes that not being in this world is preferred to be. The purpose of this article is to challenge Benatar's approach in an analytical and citation way. Benatar expresses two arguments for his claim. One is the argument of asymmetry and the other is the quality of life argument. In this paper, both of his arguments are explained and criticized. In the first argument, Benatar provides ample of evidence for his claim that he does not provide the preference for the pain and suffering which humankind experiences in this world. In the second argument, while ignoring the element of individual satisfaction and the independence of the personality of human beings, their judgments regarding their lives are considered to be due to optimism, and believes that humans, because of their ability to get accustomed to the conditions believe that their being is preferred to not being. By this statement, instead of solving the problem of suffering, he cleansed the principle of the problem and preferred not being. The morality of abortion, the immorality of reproduction and marriage, the validity of non-voluntary euthanasia, and the belief in the extinction of the human race are consequences of Benatar's approach, which are untenable.