Abstract

This paper analyzes and evaluates Benatar's influential thesis on pessimism, which claims that life has no meaning and is one of the premises for anti-natalism. Benatar's main point is that the human condition is, in fact, a tragic predicament. Benatar argues that although limited meaning is attainable, life has no meaning from a cosmic perspective, and our lives do not possess the cosmic significance we seek. He argues that since humans have no purpose for being created and there is no cosmic purpose in the lives of individual humans, human life has no meaning sub specie aeternitatis. Nihilism about cosmic meaning is the bad news. Furthermore, human life is bad because the quality of life is poor, and death is also bad because it annihilates the individual. He argues that most people's subjective assessments of their quality of life are unreliable due to psychological phenomena such as optimism bias, adaptation, and comparison with others. According to him, human life is actually full of bad things, and regardless of which theory of well-being one chooses, even the best quality of life is very poor due to empirical asymmetry. I object to Benetar's argument that life has no meaning from a cosmic perspective. Because, even when interpreted charitably, his argument is invalid, inconsistent, unclear, has odd implications, and is counterintuitive. I argue that evaluating life from a cosmic perspective is irrational. I also contend that there is no evidence that humans desire cosmic meaning, and that the meaning of life does not depend on meaning sub specie aeternitatis. Furthermore, I argue that the three psychological phenomena Benatar mentions do not threaten the reliability of quality of life assessments, and there is no empirical evidence to support his claims. Instead, I provide evidence that subjective assessments of quality of life can be trusted. Additionally, I argue that the claim that life is full of bad things is exaggerated and based on inappropriate evaluation standards. And I argue that empirical asymmetries cannot support the conclusion that human life is actually bad. My conclusion is that Benatar's attempt to explain cosmic insignificance and his claim that life is actually bad both fail. In other words, humans are not in a tragic predicament as Benatar suggests.