Becoming a Yes-Sayer: Psychedelics, Nietzsche, and the Affirmation of Life

To Friedrich Nietzsche, the correct response to the trials, tribulations, and tragedies of life was one of embrace: a yes-saying attitude. This has since become known as the Nietzschean affirmation of life, and we can juxtapose it with the Schopenhauerian rejection of life: a no-saying to suffering.  Nietzsche championed “Saying yes to life even in…

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Nietzsche and Antinatalism: Can You Affirm Life if You Oppose Procreation?

It is fair to say that much of antinatalist thought is underpinned by a rejectionist philosophy, a nay-saying attitude towards life, a pessimism about the state of human life and the world at large. The line between such pessimism and antinatalism seems logical: if you believe existence is – overall – a bad deal, an…

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