Axiological pessimism, procreation and collective responsibility

Paper by Andrea Sauchelli, published on May 20, 2025 in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

A form of pessimism can support the claim that we have a collective duty to prevent the creation of additional human beings. More specifically, I argue that axiological pessimism, which suggests that human existence is overall bad (for humans) because of a form of evil it causes, implies that we should end human procreation, provided that we do not thereby generate further such evil. In turn, this conclusion can support anti‐natalism, the normative view that we should refrain from procreating.