Antinatalism is the philosophical position that assigns a negative value to birth, and has roots stretching back millennia. One can say that the earliest recorded antinatalist sentiments appear in 5th-century BCE Greek literature, with Sophocles writing that: Not to be born is, beyond all estimation, best…
While not constituting a developed ethical argument, these verses demonstrate an early awareness of procreation’s moral ambiguity in Western thought.
Parallel developments occurred in ancient India during the 6th Century BCE: where Jain and Ajivika traditions emphasize non-attachment and the inherent suffering of existence.
In the 17th Century, Uriel da Costa critiques religious dogma and questions the morality of procreation.
In the 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer systematized philosophical pessimism in The World as Will and Representation, arguing that the cosmic will perpetuates suffering through reproduction. His metaphor of humanity as “porcupines huddling for warmth” captured the dual curse of existential need and interpersonal conflict. Though Schopenhauer stopped short of explicit antinatalism, his identification of procreation as will’s ultimate triumph laid groundwork for later ethical arguments.
Emil Cioran blended Nietzschean vitality with antinatalist themes in The Trouble with Being Born. His aphoristic style popularized antinatalist ideas in literary circles, though critics dismissed it as pathological pessimism. “Only optimists commit suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?”.
Some other notable figures that can be linked to antinatalis or proto-antinatalist arguments are: Uriel da Costa, Peter Wessel Zapff, Theodor Adorno
- Raphael Samuel Case: A Mumbai businessman who gained international attention for symbolically attempting to sue his parents for giving birth to him without consent. His case brought antinatalist philosophy from academic circles into mainstream global discourse.