Why Give a Damn?

Where our philosophical debates are going.

“Man Holding a Skull (Memento Mori),” Frank Duveneck (American, 1848-1919).

This week, I’ve been re-reading Better Never to Have Been, a book by the South African Philosopher, David Benatar. The book begins with the following absolutely unequivocal passage (useful to imagine in Werner Herzog’s voice¹):

Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existe…