[Mr. Veech]

Quote Originally Posted by EmptyAutomata

Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Veech I discovered an interesting thinker by the name of Julio Cabrera today. He's an antinatalist who is strongly influenced by Heidegger. He argues that procreation is morally wrong because of the intrinsic nature of human beings. Unlike Benatar's defense of antinatalism, Cabrera's main argument involves certain ontological claims most analytic philosophers are unwilling to discuss. Borrowing from Heidegger's ontological difference, he distinguishes punctual death (PD) from structural death (SD). Punctual death refers to death as an empirical phenomenon. Structural death is the actual process of dying itself. PD is the consummation or complete realization of SD, i.e., it represents the whole purpose of SD. The problem, according to Cabrera, is that SD serves as the very basis of human life. Mortality, in other words, is an intrinsic feature of birth. Ethically speaking, no good(s) discovered within the process of structural death can counterbalance the evil nature of the process itself. Procreation is inherently wrong because it means forcing someone to suffer through structural death. Julio Cabrera: NEGATIVE ETHICS Excellent contribution Mr. Veech. I didn't know anything about Cabrera and his works, but Negative Ethics seems to be a really interesting reading, even more if he maintains different ontological views on this subject. This also remind me of something that I read once about Deleuze's Philosophy on how the relation between the becoming of becoming creates the Event, and how this Event can expose the human condition as a plague who never cease to "becoming" in relation to the reality. It was a strange relecture of Deleuze -and some Negarestani's ideas mixed with some reinterpretations of Lovecraft's tales - exposed by an unknown person. Sadly, the writings are only in spanish. Anyways, I'm going to leave them here just to clarify all the different visions that can be found related to the antinatalism dilemma. Considerations about the Notion of Becoming https://xenogeddon.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/2/

Cabrera seems more up my alley than Benatar. However, the problem with someone like Cabrera is that his ethics, based on what I know, is grounded in a branch of philosophy (phenomenology and existentialism) which is a bit more obscure than it needs to be for someone interested in antinatalism. I can already tell that Benatar is much more approachable than Cabrera, which is something of a virtue. The latter will probably only appeal to those who are already interested in Continental philosophy.

I still think Ligotti's CATHR is the best available text concerned (in part) with antinatalism. It's intelligently written, accessible, and entertaining. The simple fact is that Ligotti is much better at expressing himself than pretty much any academic. My only "complaint" is that he didn't cut the book in half and devote the rest of his creative energies to another collection of short stories.

	CATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race