Your OP depends on the above difference but your last post sweeps it aside. — TheMadFool
it makes little difference to the fact of the matter which is that not having children is a lesser evil than having children and that's working within the boundaries of comparable suffering you set out in your OP. — TheMadFool
If you have kids, they're going to be just bland, mindless 'more of the sames'. You'll think they're special. They're not. They're not going to discover the cure for cancer; they're not going to write great literature. They're going to be utterly uninspiring moral banalities. You know, like virtually everyone so far. And in living their lives they're going to do more harm than good. You know it, I know it, we all know it. — Bartricks
not procreating is a 'neutral act'. It is a positively good act. — Bartricks
The problem with this line of thinking is that the other guy can just say "No I don't" and call you a pessimist. — khaled
not procreating is a 'neutral act'. It is a positively good act. — Bartricks
How so? Assuming having children is wrong because it harms someone then not having children can't be good simply because it doesn't harm someone. Unless you think that not having children actually benefits someone more than it harms the parents that want said children — khaled
due to the harms one has averted. — Bartricks
I think slightly different concepts are being conflated. An act can promote a good outcome without being obligatory, and an act can be obligatory without promoting a good outcome. — Bartricks
Not harming people - where harming people was an option - will often (not always) be a good feature of an act or omission. But that is consistent with it being obligatory. And it is consistent with it not being obligatory. — Bartricks
So sometimes an act can promote a good outcome — Bartricks
I didn't say a good act was obligatory. — khaled
No, but you implied that if an act was obligatory, then we cannot say of it that it was good. — Bartricks
I am simply pointing out that I think many acts and omissions are good due to the fact they avert harm — Bartricks
but I am not thereby saying that all such acts are obligatory or not. — Bartricks
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