Evaluative hedonism.

if you cannot separate the suffering from the pleasure, then it is bad overall.

Having to experience any suffering is bad overall, but if you are unfortunate enough to exist, in any given moment you are likely to be feeling either more pleasure or more suffering. The less suffering the better, and it seems that pleasure reduces suffering in any given moment. That's not to say that it doesn't make sense to plan our actions to reduce our level of suffering in the future, even if it means less pleasure or trading a bit more suffering right now (although you could argue that you're not the same person in the future so why would you care?).

Every pleasure you have, when it ends, you will be miserable, and it will end for sure. Pleasure in life amounts to a big fat zero. The only way to win, is not to play the game.

Sure, it's best not to play the game if by that you mean it's best to not exist. I don't think that a reduction in pleasure always leads to suffering though, I think that depends on the individual and the situation. I'm not saying pleasure is good in the sense that it is worth existing for or that it justifies creating more conscious beings. It doesn't matter what pleasure in life amounts to, but while you are alive it matters how much you are suffering now and how much suffering will be created for you (and others) by your continued existence until you do die. After you are dead and there is no more potential for suffering from your existence nothing matters for you, but until then your suffering matters.

/r/antinatalism Thread Parent