Can we Reconcile Axiological Nihilism and Pessimism: A Response to Prescott and Benatar on the Nature of Pessimism

Résumé

It is commonly assumed that indifferentism, which includes axiological nihilism, is incompatible with pessimism because of the perceived conflict between a lack of objective value and a claim of objectively poor quality of existence. In this paper I will examine Benatar and Prescott’s views on what characterizes pessimism, as well as Benatar’s arguments for the badness of death, and attempt to apply similar arguments to life to find a way to argue that even though nothing is objective bad, the quality of our existences are still generally poor. I offer several non-objective pessimist arguments, including that indifferentism can be itself a source of badness in our lives.