{"id":760,"date":"2019-01-01T12:17:49","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T12:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/?p=760"},"modified":"2019-01-01T12:17:49","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T12:17:49","slug":"existential-metrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/existential-metrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Existential Metrics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Re:<\/b> Benatar, David (2006) <a href=\"http:\/\/philpapers.org\/rec\/benbnt?_mmsg=Note%20saved\">Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence<\/a> Oxford<\/p>\n<p>(1) That sentient life will one day come to an end is no solace for those sentients existing and suffering today.<\/p>\n<p>(2) Whether it was better to have been or not to have been is a Cartesian koan I can ponder concerning my own existence, but  I have no right to condemn another to existence.<\/p>\n<p>(3) Pain and pleasure are incommensurable; only pain is pertinent to moral musings like these: No number of orgasms (for me) compensates for one fallen sparrow; and, again, the sparrow\u2019s potential pains or solaces are not for me to weigh &#8212; for the potential sparrow.<\/p>\n<p>(4) Christianity&#8217;s injunction to procreate come-what-may is particularly sociopathic, ever ready to sanction potential temporal risk and suffering for the bodies of others in the name of the sanctity and salvation of their immaterial, immortal souls, <i>sub specie aeternitatis<\/i> &#8212; and in the name of <i>free will<\/i>, no less&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/slideshow\/victims-of-slaughter#slide=1\"><img width='489' height='350' border='0' hspace='5' align='right' src='\/~totl\/skywritings\/uploads\/eyes1.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Photographer: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joannemcarthur.com\">Jo-Anne McArthur<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Re: Benatar, David (2006) Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence Oxford (1) That sentient life will one day come to an end is no solace for those sentients existing and suffering today. (2) Whether it was better to have been or not to have been is a Cartesian koan I &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/existential-metrics\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Existential Metrics&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}