David Benatar

Why Is David Benatar Influential?

According to Wikipedia, David Benatar is a South African philosopher, academic and author. He is best known for his advocacy of antinatalism in his book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence, in which he argues that coming into existence is a serious harm, regardless of the feelings of the existing being once brought into existence, and that, as a consequence, it is always morally wrong to create more sentient beings.

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David Benatar's Published Works

Number of citations in a given year to any of this author's works

Total number of citations to an author for the works they published in a given year. This highlights publication of the most important work(s) by the author

Published Papers

Better never to have been : the harm of coming into existence (2006) (286)
Better Never to Have Been (2006) (154)
Between Prophylaxis and Child Abuse: The Ethics of Neonatal Male Circumcision (2003) (134)
A Pain in the Fetus: Toward Ending Confusion About Fetal Pain (2001) (44)
The Unbearable Lightness of Bringing into Being (1999) (44)
Why it is better never to come into existence (1997) (41)
Bioethics and health and human rights: a critical view (2005) (39)
The chickens come home to roost. (2007) (35)
Procreation and Parenthood (2010) (34)
The Misanthropic Argument for Anti-natalism (2015) (33)
Still Better Never to Have Been: A Reply to (More of) My Critics (2013) (29)
Procreation and Parenthood: The Ethics of Bearing and Rearing Children (2011) (28)
The trouble with universal declarations. (2005) (26)
3:2 Target Article authors respond to Commentators: How Not to Argue About Circumcision (2003) (21)
How not to argue about circumcision. (2003) (20)
Justice, diversity and racial preference : a critique of affirmative action (2008) (17)
Every Conceivable Harm: A Further Defence of Anti-Natalism (2012) (17)
The Second Sexism (2003) (17)
Just admissions : South African universities and the question of racial preference (2010) (15)
The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys (2012) (15)
Statement on withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining therapy. (1994) (15)
Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions (2010) (15)
The Limits of Reproductive Freedom (2010) (14)
A legal right to die: responding to slippery slope and abuse arguments. (2011) (13)
A tale of two novel transplants not done: the ethics of limb allografts (2002) (13)
Evaluations of circumcision should be circumscribed by the evidence (2013) (12)
The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (2017) (11)
Moral theories may have some role in teaching applied ethics (2007) (11)
Taking Humour (Ethics) Seriously, But Not Too Seriously (2014) (8)
The wrong of wrongful life (2000) (7)
Reproductive freedom and risk. (2006) (6)
Grim news from the original position: a reply to Professor Doyal (2007) (6)
Against Commanding to Believe (2001) (6)
Informed consent and research (1998) (5)
Indiscretion and other threats to confidentiality (2010) (5)
Teaching moral theories is an option: reply to Rob Lawlor (2009) (5)
Global Health and Global Health Ethics: Animals, the environment and global health (2011) (5)
Why the Naïve Argument against Moral Vegetarianism Really is Naïve (2001) (5)
Debating Procreation: Is It Wrong to Reproduce? (2015) (5)
Famine, Affluence, and Procreation: Peter Singer and Anti-Natalism Lite (2020) (4)
Responding to Objections (2012) (4)
Should there be a legal right to die? (2010) (4)
WHAT'S GOD GOT TO DO WITH IT? ATHEISM AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICE (2006) (3)
How does anybody live in this strange place? A reply to Samantha Vice (2012) (3)
A FIRST NAME BASIS? (2011) (3)
Not “Not ‘Better Never to Have Been’”: A Reply to Christine Overall (2018) (2)
Choosing Tomorrow’s Children: The Ethics of Selective Reproduction (2011) (2)
Duty and the beast: animal experimentation and neglected interests. (2000) (2)
How Bad is Coming into Existence (2006) (2)
Grim news for an unoriginal position: a reply to Seth Baum (2009) (2)
What’s So Good about Non-Existence? An Alternative Explanation of Four Asymmetrical Value Judgments (2013) (2)
HIV and the hemi-nanny state. (2002) (2)
A storm in a turban (2006) (2)
Procreative permissiveness (2014) (2)
Beyond the haze of the tobacco bill debate. (1999) (2)
Animals, the Environment, and Global Health (2021) (2)
Life Is Not Good (2016) (2)
Jews in Denmark (2006) (2)
Cloning and ethics. (1998) (1)
The Owl and the Ostrich: Reply to Sami Pihlström on Ethical Unthinkabilities and Philosophical Seriousness (2011) (1)
From medical manners to moral reasoning: an historical overview of bioethics in the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences. (2012) (1)
Suicide: A Qualified Defense (2013) (1)
To Be or Not to Have Been?: Defective Counterfactual Reasoning About One’s Own Existence (2001) (1)
Alternatives to Impersonal Approaches: Birthrights and Role-Based Duties (2015) (1)
Philosophy not Ideology : A Response to Ward Jones and (2013) (1)
A FIRST NAME BASIS? – ERRATUM (2011) (1)
No life is good (2011) (1)
Reproducing Companion Animals (2017) (1)
The Second Sexism, a Second Time (2003) (1)
The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics: Non-therapeutic pediatric interventions (2008) (1)
Rape and the Straw Man (2015) (1)
Unscientific Ethics: Science and Selective Ethics (2007) (1)
Misconceived: Why These Further Criticisms of Anti-natalism Fail (2022) (1)
Introducing Anti-Natalism (2015) (0)
Obligation, Motivation and Reward: An Analysis of a Talmudic Principle (2002) (0)
Book Review (2002) (0)
Erratum (2005) (0)
Review of Melvin Konner, Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy, New York: W.W. Norton, 2015 (2015) (0)
Explaining Male Disadvantage and Thinking about Sex Differences (2012) (0)
Why Coming into Existence is Always a Harm (2006) (0)
My turn and my right (2012) (0)
ETHICS POLICIES AND REASONING ABOUT ETHICS. AUTHOR'S REPLY (1998) (0)
Having Children: The Anti‐Natal View (2006) (0)
From Disadvantage to Wrongful Discrimination (2012) (0)
A justification for rights (1992) (0)
Book Review (1999) (0)
ical ethics, but one that may be overriden in some circumstances. MAIN TOPIC (2003) (0)
Humor, Ethics of (2013) (0)
Professor Doyal Grim news from the original position: a reply to (2007) (0)
Confidentiality : main topic (2003) (0)
Suicide Is Sometimes Rational and Morally Defensible (2020) (0)
There's no method in the badness. (2013) (0)
Obscurity, falsehood, and innuendo – A response to M. John Lamola (2018) (0)
Abortion--some practical and ethical considerations. (1994) (0)
The Harm of Coming into Existence (2007) (0)
Inflation: a study of its effects and the accounting and management responses developed br American companies in the period 1985 to 1987 (2016) (0)
The Quality-of-Life Argument (2015) (0)
The optimism delusion (2008) (0)
A Précis of Your Predicament (2018) (0)
The Gendered Conference Campaign: A Critique (2015) (0)
Abortion -- some practical and ethical considerations [editorial] (1994) (0)
Medical ethics : guest editorial (2003) (0)
Jonathan Glover, Choosing Children: The Ethical Dilemmas of Genetic Intervention (2007) (0)
Abortion: The ‘Pro‐Death’ View (2006) (0)
Still Better Never to Have Been: A Reply to (More of) My Critics (2012) (0)
Misconceived: Why These Further Criticisms of Anti-natalism Fail (2022) (0)
The Second Sexism by David Benatar (2006) (0)
Population and Extinction (2006) (0)
We Have No Moral Duty to Eat Meat: A Reply to Nick Zangwill (2022) (0)
Where are the males? Diversity, proportionality and Health Sciences admissions. (2016) (0)
The Misanthropic Argument (2015) (0)
Straw People and Allografted Limbs (2020) (0)
Christine Overall: Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate (2013) (0)
Cartoons and consequences (2008) (0)
The Uphill Battle of Unpopular Ideas (2022) (0)
Emotional support animals are not like prosthetics: a response to Sara Kolmes (2020) (0)
Teaching Ethics for Everyday (2006) (0)
Creation Ethics: Reproduction, Genetics, and the Quality of Life, by David DeGrazia. (2014) (0)
The Asymmetry Argument (2015) (0)
Ethics of limb allografts. Authors' reply (2002) (0)
Christine Overall: Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate (2014) (0)
Referees for volume 7 (2008) (0)
Famine, Affluence, and Procreation: Peter Singer and Anti-Natalism Lite (2020) (0)
Ethics policies and reasoning about ethics. (1998) (0)

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Other Resources About David Benatar

en.wikipedia.org

What Schools Are Affiliated With David Benatar?

David Benatar is affiliated with the following schools:

University of Cape Town

What Are David Benatar's Academic Contributions?

David Benatar is most known for their academic work in the field of philosophy. They are also known for their academic work in the fields of and education.

David Benatar has made the following academic contributions:

Better Never to Have Been

David Benatar's AcademicInfluence.com Rankings