Antinatalism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arthur Schopenhauer 1859

This article deals with antinatalism as a philosophy that, for ethical reasons, advocates not bringing forth new people. The word is derived from the Latin natalis , "belonging to the birth". The opposite of antinatalism is pronatalism . Before the Belgian philosopher Théophile de Giraud used the term antinatalism to describe the philosophy that argues for childlessness, the French thinker Philippe Annaba used the term anti-procreationism . An anti-natalistic policy must be distinguished from philosophical anti-natalism: A number of states pursued or pursued an anti-natalistic population policy for a long time (China's one-child policy ). Anti-natalist positions are represented by the Arab poet Al-Ma'arri , Arthur Schopenhauer , Brother Theodore , EM Cioran , Matti Häyry , Peter Wessel Zapffe , Martin Neuffer , Karim Akerma, Gunter Bleibohm, David Benatar , Théophile de Giraud , Jean-Christophe Lurenbaum , Julio Cabrera , Thomas Ligotti , Michel Onfray and the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement . Chris Korda's Church of Euthanasia (CoE), an organization recognized as a religious community in the United States, is a radical advocate of this position and criticizes the continuing rapid population growth with the demand Thou shalt not procreate (“You should not reproduce”) .

Population political antinatalism

The population-political antinatalism cites for its position, among other things , famines and environmental problems caused by overpopulation . It is argued that renouncing children or restricting themselves to small families protects a state from overload or ultimately serves the survival of mankind, since the earth's resources are limited. Countries that pursue or have pursued anti-natalist policies include, for example, India and the People's Republic of China. The Chinese one-child policy , according to which a family was only allowed to have one child (until 2015), was intended to keep population growth under control. In Germany, according to Gisela Bock , the National Socialists pursued an anti-natalist policy within the framework of their racist ideology, which was directed against the reproduction of persecuted groups of people, especially against citizens of Jewish faith or with Jewish ancestors.

Antinatalism in climate policy

In 2017, climate researchers Seth Wynes and Kimberly Nicholas published a study in the journal Environmental Research Letters . In it they argue that it saves more CO 2 emissions by not having a child than by taking numerous other measures in connection with housing, mobility and consumption. The study was picked up in numerous media and illustrated with a diagram that shows the CO 2 savings of a non-born human life significantly higher than various activities for CO 2 savings such as. B. electromobility or vegetarianism . The German activist Verena Brunschweiger provoked 2019 with her book Kinderfrei instead of childless , in which she pleaded for not having children for the sake of the climate.

Religious antinatalism

Many religions are or were turned away from the world rather than turned towards the world and teach that our earthly life is only short and insignificant or a punishment or trial or that a real or better life is still to come after a resurrection or reincarnation . Because earth life is comparatively worthless or the end of the world is imminent, religions that are turned away from the world suggest to their followers to a greater or lesser extent that there should be no offspring. This is often less strict for religious laypeople than for priests, nuns or monks. These worldly religions include Jainism , Brahmanism / Hinduism and Buddhism . These religions want to show a way out of the cycle of rebirth and having to die. The secret teaching of the Upanishads became fundamental to Hinduism in particular . There were also anti-natalistic tendencies in early Christianity , especially among its Gnostic offshoots. They attached themselves to those passages in the New Testament which, in view of the imminent Kingdom of God, call for celibacy and present family ties as an obstacle to achieving perfection, and viewed procreation as unnecessary in view of this imminent expectation. A Gnostic religion with a pronounced anti-natalistic tendency was Manichaeism, founded by Mani (216-277) . Antinatalism also particularly marked the teachings of the medieval Cathars , who viewed the liberation of the fallen angelic souls from the prison of their bodies as the goal of redemption. They condemned the birth of new beings, by which souls are chained to other bodies, as a delay in this salvation. A religiously based anti-natalism can also be found among the American Shakers , a Quaker group that has now almost died out.

Metaphysical antinatalism

Arthur Schopenhauer represented a metaphysical antinatalism. Since life is essentially suffering, for Schopenhauer it is necessary to refrain from procreation. In the context of his metaphysics, he suspects that with the extinction of humanity through non-reproduction, the entire world would cease to be an idea:

“Voluntary, complete chastity is the first step in asceticism or the negation of the will to live. It thereby denies the affirmation of the will going beyond individual life and thus gives the indication that with the life of this body the will, of which it appears, is also canceled. Nature, always true and naive, says that if this maxim were to become general, the human race would die out: and according to what is said in the second book about the connection of all manifestations of will, I believe I can assume that with the highest manifestation of will even the weaker reflection of it, the animality, would disappear; just as the penumbra disappears with full light. With the complete abolition of knowledge, the rest of the world would then by itself also disappear into nothing; there is no object without a subject. "

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Philipp Mainländer should be mentioned as a metaphysical-religious antinatalist . He understands the disappearance of humanity on the path of birthlessness as a worship service: According to Mainländer, God strives to become nothing. “Nobody has ever considered this possibility. But if you consider it seriously, you will see that in this single case God's omnipotence, precisely by himself, limited that it was no omnipotence over itself. “God created the world in order to become nothing. And Mainländer believes "that the departure of humanity from the world stage will have effects that are in one and only direction of the universe."

"Virginity is the conditio sine qua non of redemption and the negation of the will to live is sterile if man only grasps it when he has already affirmed his will in the production of children."

- Philipp Mainländer : The philosophy of redemption. First volume. Ethics (Appendix). P. 287

Modern antinatalism

Modern antinatalism begins with Neo-Nihilismus , published under the pseudonym Kurnig at the beginning of the 20th century. Kurnig: “I see human life as something unpleasant in its entirety, as a misfortune. No unborn would ask for it. (...) Not by violent means (murder, war and the like), but in a gentle way may humanity disappear from our globe. "" The only possible progress of the whole thing lies on the way of the cessation of child generation - as I said, the gentle one Depopulation of our globe. Everything that benefits a gentle, rapid and definitive depopulation must be advocated. That will be the morality of the future. "

Moral theoretical antinatalism

Proponents of an anti-natalistic moral theory argue in favor of not conceiving new people, because suffering, pain, loss, grief, despair, which everyone experiences without exception, cannot be compensated for by the happiness or satisfaction that everyone experiences as well. The proponents of the anti-natalistic moral theory consider non-compensable suffering to be an unchangeable constant in human existence, regardless of whether it is a rich or a poor society. The moral theoretical antinatalism would like to spare future generations the burden of existence.

Ethical asymmetries and antinatalism

At first glance, utilitarianism is a pro-natalistic moral theory: one should act in such a way that there is as much happiness as possible in the world. By and large it seems to be true: the more people there are in the world, the more happiness there is in the world. In his work The Open Society and Its Enemies , Karl Raimund Popper fundamentally criticized this representation. According to Popper, suffering ethically outweighs happiness. Therefore, from an ethical point of view, it is more urgent to minimize suffering in the world than to maximize happiness. Popper: "We should understand that suffering and bliss should not be treated as symmetrical from a moral point of view." In his book Ebony of Humanity? Karim Akerma refers to this asymmetry in order to gain an argument for the anti-natalistic moral theory: The suffering in the world is minimized precisely when no more people are produced.

In his essay Utilitarianism and New Generations , Hermann Vetter cites the following table to illustrate an ethical asymmetry that is supposed to justify antinatalism:

Column 1

Child will be more or less happy

Column 2

Child will be more or less unhappy

Child conceived No duty fulfilled or violated Duty violated
Child not conceived No duty fulfilled or violated Duty fulfilled

The table is to illustrate that the non-breeding never an obligation violated and that there can be no duty to reproduce. On the other hand, there could be an obligation to not reproduce, namely when the future person would be more or less unhappy. Since it is never possible to say in advance what the life of a future person would be, Vetter says it is imperative not to reproduce.

In his book Better never to have been , David Benatar also invokes an ethical asymmetry to justify antinatalism. Benatar thinks that in the case of non-procreation the absence of happiness (which another person would have experienced) is not bad, while in the case of procreation the - inevitable - presence of suffering that another person would experience is bad. Therefore it is better not to reproduce.

In antinatalism. A handbook by Karim Akerma is available for antinatalism and the like. a. asserted the asymmetry illustrated in the following table:

Best external knowledge: child will be extremely happy / healthy Best external knowledge:

Child will be unhappy / unhealthy

Couple willing to conceive because child will have a good life No obligation to revise the decision Obligation to revise the decision
Couple unwilling to conceive because child will have a bad life No obligation to revise the decision No obligation to revise the decision

The ethical asymmetry in favor of antinatalism is that once a decision not to have children does not need to be revised. Not even if it was certain that the child in question would have a very good life. On the other hand, there was an obligation to revise a decision to procreate when it was certain that a child would not have a good life. Because of the uncertainty of future existence, there is an ethical preponderance in favor of antinatalism.

Anthropodicy and Antinatalism

Whoever believes in an omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent God is faced with the question of why he has not arranged the world better and has allowed so much suffering. The attempt to justify divine creation and the creation of man in view of the suffering in the world is called theodicy . The less there is now believed in an almighty Creator God ( God-is-dead-theology ), the more urgent the question arises of how it can be justified, in view of the suffering that is to be expected for every human being, that human beings beget a human being. This is the question of the anthropodicy . For Karim Akerma, antinatalism is a consequence of the failure of previous attempts at anthropodicy. According to him, there is no metaphysics or moral theory that can justify the creation of new people.

Universal antinatalism

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement therefore advocates an extinction of humanity through childlessness so that other living beings can live better. Other antinatalists, on the other hand, argue for an unhappy extinction not only of humans but of all pain-sensitive living beings. Because even after the disappearance of humans, carnivorous animals would have to feed on other pain-sensitive animals and often hunt and kill them in cruel ways. "By means of sterilization it can be prevented that the animals bound to natural impulses constantly give birth to new offspring in the cycle of being born, parasite infestation, aging, getting sick and dying, eating and being eaten." By taking into account the suffering of wild animals , the universal antinatalism goes beyond the consideration of the The suffering of farm animals to which the demands of animal rights activists are traditionally limited.

Self-determined antinatalism

Childlessness can offer individuals or couples better opportunities to develop, or there is simply a feeling of discomfort when living with children.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ De Giraud, Théophile: L'art de guillotiner les procréateurs. Manifestos anti-nataliste, Nancy 2006, ISBN 2-916502-00-9
  2. ^ Philippe Annaba: L 'Antiprocréationnisme. De Schopenhauer à Cioran. Retrieved November 13, 2018 (French).
  3. ↑ M. Häyry: A rational cure for prereproductive stress syndrome. In: Journal of medical ethics. Volume 30, Number 4, August 2004, pp. 377-378, PMID 15289525 , PMC 1733883 (free full text).
  4. ↑ M. Häyry: The rational cure for prereproductive stress syndrome revisited. In: Journal of medical ethics. Volume 31, number 10, October 2005, pp. 606-607, doi: 10.1136 / jme.2005.011684 , PMID 16199605 , PMC 1734020 (free full text).
  5. ↑ [1] Matti Häyry, Arguments and Analysis in Bioethics, Rodopi, 2010, pp. 171-174.
  6. ↑ Martin Neuffer: No to life . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-596-11342-3 .
  7. ↑ Karim Akerma: Should there be humanity? A fundamental ethical question . Traude Junghans Verlag, Cuxhaven-Dartford 1995, ISBN 3-926848-36-7 .
  8. ↑ Karim Akerma: Is humanity ebbing? Neganthropy and anthropodicy . Alber, Freiburg 2000, ISBN 3-495-47912-0 .
  9. ↑ Karim Akerma: Antinatalism. A manual . epubli, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-7418-9275-2 .
  10. ↑ Gunter Bleibohm: Curse of Birth . Edition Gegensicht, Landau 2010, ISBN 978-3-9815802-7-3 .
  11. ↑ David Benatar: Better Never to Have Been. Oxford University Press, USA 2006.
  12. ↑ L'art de guillotiner les procréateurs on tabularasamagazin.de
  13. ↑ Lurenbaum, Jean-Christophe, Nâitre est-il dans l'intérêt de l'enfant ?, Lulu.com, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4478-5572-9
  14. ↑ Condemned to create value - Julio Cabrera's book DISCOMFORT AND MORAL IMPEDIMENT. On tabularasamagazin.de
  15. ↑ The Conspiracy against the Human Race on tabularasamagazin.de
  16. ↑ Michel Onfray, Sagesse, Albin Michel / Flammarion 2019, the chapter Engendrer (reproduction), pp. 181-201
  17. ^ Henryk M. Broder : Makes love, not babies. In: DER SPIEGEL . 48/1996.
  18. ↑ BRIAN E. DIXON: In food crisis, family planning helps. April 28, 2008.
  19. ↑ a b Donella Meadows: The new frontiers of growth: the situation of humanity: threats and future opportunities. German Verl.-Anst., Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-421-06626-4 .
  20. ↑ Heinz Werner Wessler: India - an introduction: Challenges for the emerging Asian great power in the 21st century. Federal Agency for Civic Education, January 30, 2007.
  21. ^ Gisela Bock: Antinatalism, Maternity and Paternity in National Socialist Racism (in: David F. Crew [ed.]: Nazism and German Society 1933–1945, Routledge 1994, pp. 110–140)
  22. ^ Seth Wynes, Kimberly A. Nicholas: The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions . In: Environmental Research Letters . tape 12 , no. 7 , July 2017, ISSN  1748-9326 , p. 074024 , doi : 10.1088 / 1748-9326 / aa7541 .
  23. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Having fewer children: A solution for climate change? | DW | 07/14/2017. Retrieved March 2, 2020 (UK English).
  24. ↑ Verena Brunschweiger vs. Nina Pauer - Are children climate killers? Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  25. ↑ On anti-natalist tendencies in Hinduism and Buddhism, see Ken Coates, Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar, First Edition Design Publishing 2014, Chapter 1
  26. ↑ On religious antinatalism see: Karim Akerma, Ebbing of Humanity? Neganthropie und Anthropodizee (Freiburg 2000), Chapter 6 (The Gnostic Ontology of the ebb and flow), Chapter 7 (On the obligation to produce in the Bible and Patristic), Chapter 8 (Reflections on the ought to be of humanity in philosophical theology)
  27. ↑ Arthur Schopenhauer: The world as will and idea . Fourth book, § 68.
  28. ^ Philipp Mainländer, Philosophy of Redemption, 2nd edition, Berlin 1879, p. 324f
  29. ^ Philipp Mainländer, Philosophy of Redemption, 2nd edition, Berlin 1879, p. 343
  30. ↑ Kurnig: The Neo-Nihilism . 2nd increased edition. Max Sängewald, 1903, p. 51 .
  31. ↑ Arthur Schopenhauer in: Supplements to the doctrine of the suffering of the world.
  32. ^ Karl Raimund Popper, The open society and their enemies (vol. 1) 6th edition Munich 1980, p. 316
  33. ↑ See Karim Akerma, Eating Out of Mankind? Neganhropie und Anthropodizee, Alber Verlag, Freiburg 2000, Chapter 17.5: Negative Utilitarismus, S. 216ff
  34. ^ Hermann Vetter: Utilitarianism and New Generations . Ed .: Min. tape 80 (1971) , pp. 301–302, here: 302 .
  35. ↑ Karim Akerma: Antinatalism. A manual . epubli, Berlin 2017, p. 449 .
  36. ↑ Karim Akerma, Are Humankind ebbing? Neganthropy and anthropodicy, Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2000
  37. ↑ Karim Akerma: Manifesto on Antinatalism . pro iure animalis, 2014. ( online )
  38. ^ Andrew Hacker: The case against kids.

Web links

Wiktionary: Antinatalism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations