The "affirmative" criticized in this book is manifested in the conviction that ethical theory should not ask directly about how-to be (how to live well, how to be happy, etc.), thus answering the most fun-giving question about the value of being itself. In this sense, both Kantian and utilitarian, eudemonist or ascetic ethical theories, regardless of their specific contents, have been, without exception, affirmative. Because of the non-radical nature of his reflection, an immense part of anti-ethical actions that are not strictly based on the transgression of Morais rules, but on their secondary application, on their compliance within restricted areas of action, are systematically outside the critical scope of affirmative ethics. Leibniz, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Wittgenstein are some European philosophers used in this attempt at radical thought. Habermas, Tugendhat, Hare and Benatar, some critically affected "affirmatives". According to a negative ethic, a plenary acceptance of being could only be defended in a non-argumentative sense—as Nietzsche does—outside of ethics. If philosophy is to lead necessaryly and inevitably—from Plato to Schopenhauer—to the radical devaluation of life, life's response—according to Nietzsche—will not be to show that philosophy is wrong, but to show that life can radically devalue the philosophy itself that devalues it.