The Santa Monica Philosophy Meetup – Is it better never to have been born?

UPDATE: we have a topic for the monthly Meetup, this Sunday, July 6 at 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM Pacific Time. We're meeting by Zoom this month; join in by phone or by computer with a microphone and (preferably) a webcam. Shortly before the meeting starts, I'll send a Zoom invitation with the link and some discussion notes.

If your plans to attend have changed, please update your RSVP.

The winner of the email vote and the topic for Sunday is:

IS IT BETTER NEVER TO HAVE BEEN BORN? Is most any human life too tragic or painful on balance to be worth living? If you’re persuaded this is the case, should we therefore refrain from bringing children into the world? We can evaluate the reasons "Anti-Natalist" philosophers believe that it would be better if we’d not been brought into existence.
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READINGS for the topic – I have two short articles for you this time.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110505043932/http://www.philosophypress.co.uk/?p=1902
No Life is Good. This 4-page article in TPM, the Philosophers Magazine, is by philosopher David Benatar, the originator of anti-natalism. "While some lives are better than others, no lives are good enough to count as (non-comparatively) good." The original link is broken, but I found the article at the link above in the Internet Archive (the "WayBack Machine").

https://philosophynow.org/issues/149/The_Goodness_of_Existence
The Goodness of Existence. In this 5-page article from Philosophy Now Magazine, philosopher Jarlath Cox argues against David Benatar and anti-natalism.
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Don't forget, if you have some philosophical question or issue that you want to talk about at a future meeting, email it to me!