《生存还是毁灭》内容简介
书店里有整片的“自助”书籍区及其他鸡汤读物，却没有“无力自助”区和“悲观主义”区，因为这类思想的市场规模微乎其微。
我不是在认真主张我们无力自助。我是认为存在一些事情，我们的确对之无能为力，但即使依据一种现实的悲观看法，我们仍然可以做些事来减轻我们的困境。
一本悲观的书最有可能慰藉到的对象，是已经有同样看法却因此感到孤独或觉得自己有病的人。若能发觉有人跟自己看法相同，而且这些看法有不错的论证来支撑，这些人或许能因此得到安慰。
……
无可否认，找到正确的道路很难，因为既要避免大而无当的宣言和过度修辞造成的故弄玄虚，也要避免深奥、乏味、细而又细的条分缕析。换言之，对复杂问题做出易懂、有趣而严格的探讨，并非易事。……不过，本书的写作确实有个目标，那就是既让有悟性的非专业读者能读、能懂，又足够严格，能满足构成本书期望读者群的另一部分人，即专业哲学家（及有志于哲学专业的读者）。但愿我取得了恰切的平衡。
作者简介
大卫·贝纳塔，南非开普敦大学哲学系教授、系主任，生物伦理学中心主任，纯素食者。因刻意低调，公开的个人信息很少。
To be or not to Be
There are entire sections for "self-help" books and other chicken soup readings, but no sections for "inability to help yourself" or "pessimism," because the market for such ideas is so small.
I'm not seriously arguing that we can't help ourselves. I think there are things we can't really do anything about, but even with a realistic pessimistic view, there are things we can do to alleviate our plight.
The people most likely to be comforted by a pessimistic book are those who already feel the same way and feel lonely or sick because of it. They may be comforted by the knowledge that others share their views and that they have good arguments to back them up.
...
Admittedly, it is difficult to find the right path, because it is necessary to avoid both the mystification caused by grandiose declarations and excessive rhetoric, and the esoteric, tedious, subtle and detailed analysis. In other words, it is not easy to make an accessible, interesting, and rigorous discussion of complex issues. ... The book does, however, have been written with the goal of being both accessible and understandable to savvy lay readers, and rigorous enough to satisfy the other segment of the book's intended audience: professional philosophers (and aspiring philosophical readers). I hope I've got the right balance.
About the author
David Benata is Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for BioEthics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a vegan. Due to a low profile, very little personal information is disclosed.
