The pessimistic hypothesis is the hypothesis that life is bad for us, in the sense that we are worse off for having come into existence. Suppose this hypothesis turns out to be correct — existence turns out to be more of a burden than a gift. A natural next thought is that we should stop having children. But I contend that this is a mistake; procreation would often be permissible even if the pessimistic hypothesis turned out to be correct. Roughly, this is because we are often in a position to know that future people will approve of having been created, and their approval will not be inappropriate even if they are worse off for having been created. And our respect for the attitudes of future people can permit us to create them.

中文翻译：

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悲观主义与生育

悲观假说是这样的假说：生活对我们不利，因为我们的生存状况因我们的存在而变得更糟。假设这个假设被证明是正确的——存在更多的是一种负担，而不是一份礼物。下一个自然的想法是我们应该停止生孩子。但我认为这是一个错误；即使悲观的假设被证明是正确的，生育通常也是被允许的。粗略地说，这是因为我们常常能够知道未来的人们会批准被创造，而且他们的批准也不会是不恰当的，即使他们的境况因被创造而变得更糟。我们对未来人的态度的尊重可以让我们创造他们。