About

I'm a philosopher, specializing in ethical and metaphysical questions regarding procreation, death, and meaning.  I'm also known for my lack of good cheer and abundance of great shoes.  

I got my PhD from the University of Michigan,  and I am Professor of Philosophy and Mary W. and J. Stanley Johnson Chair in the Humanities at Scripps College, Claremont Colleges Consortium. You can email me at: rivka_weinberg@scrippscollege.edu

Books

The Meaning of It All, Oxford University Press, forthcoming


Essays/Blogposts


     Essays

"Death is Overrated," The Philosopher, 2023

"The Road to Auschwitz Wasn't Paved with Indifference," The New York Times, 2020

         *History News Network Roundup Top 10, January 24, 2020

         *Reprinted in The Moral Psychology of Hate, Ed. Birondo, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021

         *Reprinted in The Stone Reader, Question Everything, Liveright, 2022

 

"Is it Unethical to Have Kids in the Era of Climate Change?" Quartz, 2017

 

"It Depends," Forum on Procreation: How Many Children Should We Create?, The Philosophers' Magazine, 2016

 

"Why Life Is Absurd: A Consideration of Time, Space, Relativity, Meaning and Absurdity (Yep, All of It)" The New York Times, 2015

         *Awarded The Immortality Project Essay Prize (Templeton)

         *Reprinted in The Stone Reader, Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments, Liveright, 20

 


     Blog Posts

"A Conflict of Interests," Philosophers on the Ethics and Politics of Abortion, Daily Nous, 2019

 

"What's Wrong with Selecting for Maleness or White Skin?" What's Wrong?, 2016

 

"Do You Act as You Argue or Argue as You Act?" Daily Nous, 2015

Articles 

   ***For free reads, see links on my Scripps faculty page, here


"Replies to Critics" (Replies to Response papers to "Ultimate Meaning: We Don't Have it, We Can't Get it, and We Should Be Very, Very, Sad," Journal of Controversial Ideas, 2021 1: 4-24), Journal of Controversial Ideas, 2022 2


"Between Sisyphus's Rock and a Warm and Fuzzy Place: Procreative Ethics and the Meaning of Life," The Oxford Handbook of Meaning in Life, ed. Iddo Landau, 2022


"Ultimate Meaning: We Don't Have it, We Can't Get it, and We Should Be Very, Very, Sad," Journal of Controversial Ideas, 2021 1: 4-24

     *Featured topic, David Monds, The Here and Now podcast on topics in philosophy and psychology, 2021

     *Harry Chalmers Youtube channel, "Rivka Weinberg on Ultimate Meaning", 2021

     * Bill Meacham, "Life Has No Meaning: So What?" Medium, 2023

                                                                                                                           

"Risk, Responsibility, and Procreative Asymmetries," The Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics, ed. Stephen Gardiner, 2021

 

"The Endless Umbilical Cord: Parental Obligation to Grown Children," Journal of Practical Ethics, 2018 6: 55-72

 

"'You Got Me Into This…': Procreative Responsibility and its Implications for Suicide and Euthanasia," in New Directions in the Ethics of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, Michael Cholbi, Ed., Springer, 2015

 

"Whose Problem is Non-Identity?" co-authored with Paul Hurley, Journal of Moral Philosophy, 2015 12: 699-730

 

 "Existence: Who Needs It? The Non-Identity Problem and Merely Possible People," Bioethics, 2013 27: 471-484

 

"Is Having Children Always Wrong?" South African Journal of Philosophy, (Special Issue on Anti-Natalism) 2012 31: 26-37

*Reprinted in Contemporary Anti-Natalism, Ed. Thaddeus Metz, Routledge 2023

 

"It 'Ain't My World," Utilitas 2009 21: 144-162

 

"The Moral Complexity of Sperm Donation," Bioethics 2008 22: 166-178

 

"Identifying and Dissolving the Non-Identity Problem," Philosophical Studies 2008 137: 3-18

 

"Procreative Justice: A Contractualist Account," Public Affairs Quarterly 2002 16: 405-25

Book Reviews

Review of Chris Kaposy, Choosing Down Syndrome (MIT, 2018), Bioethics, 2019 33: 976-977

Review of Sarah Hannan, Samantha Brennan, and Richard Vernon, Eds., Permissible Progeny: The Morality of Procreation and Parenting (Oxford, 2015), The Journal of Moral Philosophy, 2018  15: 781-783


Review of Mark Norris Lance, Matjaž Potrč and Vojko Strahovnik, eds., Challenging Moral Particularism (Routledge, 2008), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2009


Review of Tim Mulgan's Future People: A Moderate Consequentialist Account of Our Obligations to Future Generations (Oxford, 2006), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, December 2006

Interviews/Podcasts/Talks

The Antinatalist Advocacy Podcast, Episode 11:

"Criticisms of Antinatalism and Effective Altruism"

The Exploring Antinatalism Podcast #24

"Rivka Weinberg"

New York Institute of Philosophy, The Ethics of Donor Conception Conference

"Rivka Weinberg, 'Gamete Donation and Parental Responsibility'"

Reddit