|
To be perfectly honest, my first child wasn't the result of sweaty, grunty philosophical cogitation. She was an accident, but one that was embraced. The second kid was a conscious choice because the first kid was a net awesome.
While I do have no small amount of fear that the world will collapse into chaos during the lives of my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, it isn't a limiting factor in my decision making. The world has always been a cruel place and if humanity ever gets to a place where it is collectively afraid to reproduce because the world is too cruel, then it will justifiably die out.
On top of that, I believe that suffering is relative, and happiness is generally fleeting, regardless of circumstance. So that the calculus involved with predicting the net lifetime emotional satisfaction of potential offspring is not only intractable, but also a misguided endeavor.
|