Essays

The archive.

Every essay we've published, newest first — antinatalism and philosophy alongside society, technology, spirituality, and mental health.

100 essays · page 10 of 10

The 19th-century philosopher who systematized pessimism and found unexpected solace in art, compassion, and renunciation.

Why some of history's sharpest minds have argued that life is worse than we allow ourselves to believe.

Does coming into existence always constitute a harm? A careful examination of the asymmetry argument and its implications.

Is existentialism necessarily about the absurd? Reclaiming Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus as thinkers of freedom and commitment.

A careful reading of *Better Never to Have Been* and the asymmetry that reshaped contemporary moral philosophy.

How the ancient philosophy of Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius holds up under contemporary scrutiny.

You do not need to believe anything to sit still and watch your mind.

Mysticism is not the opposite of reason. It is what reason looks like when it remembers it has a body.

A pessimistic note on the only finite thing you actually own.

It is not only what we think about that has changed. It is the texture of thinking itself.