The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions

by David Benatar

Some may wonder how two of my views can be reconciled: How can it be better never to have come into existence but also be a bad to cease to exist? One reason it is better never to come into existence is that one does not face annihilation. Never existing does not carry that cost, but ceasing to exist does. Existence also carries innumerable other costs. These include various assaults on the quality of life (discussed in chapter 4), as well as the absence of meaningfulness to varying degrees (discussed in chapter 3). There is invulnerability to all of those if one never exists. By coming into existence, many of these costs are inescapable, and one becomes vulnerable to others. This is why it is better never to come into existence. Death is a release from only some of these existential burdens. Thus, while it returns us to a state of immunity to some fates—such as physical or mental suffering—it does so at considerable cost. It can deprive us of some goods. It also thwarts the interest we have in continuing to exist. It obliterates us.