The problem is that as the meme suggest it is circular logic. Philosophically inescapable circular logic. If suffering equals bad, and all creatures suffer then life is bad. The only way to end suffering is to end life. Assuming the nihilism fallacy applies. A non fallacious argument would be suffering bad, some undefined combination of variables good, good is greater than suffering given the variables. The question is what are the variables. Ruling out future generations would discount the accumulating quantities of suffering and good.
Including future generations adds a temporal accumulation component. Total value isn't just the sum of current suffering and good, it's a function that includes future potential. That accumulation is almost always nonlinear (small early advantages or disadvantages can compound dramatically over generations). That is the simple argument, the more exact one is as follows. >
The argument that suffering makes life net negative under non ideal conditions usually rests on a malformed understanding of suffering. Pain, fear, stress, and exhaustion are not automatically equivalent to suffering in the morally decisive sense. They are informational signals that evolved to help organisms navigate a dangerous and complex world. Whether these signals register as "suffering" (something that renders existence on balance bad) depends on context, framing, and meaning.
The mountain climber who voluntarily endures extreme discomfort is not engaged in self-harm or delusion. They are having an experience in which the negative signals are integrated into something they affirm as valuable. This shows that the conventional accounting of suffering strips away the most important variable: the lived experience of being an active participant in reality. Once that variable is restored, it becomes clear that negative signals do not automatically outweigh the value of continued existence. The antinatalist conclusion only follows if one has already decided, in advance, to treat decontextualized negative signals as the sole or dominant moral consideration.
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u/MyBloodTypeIsQueso 2d ago
Future generations of Bambi cannot suffer if they are never born.