Coming to Life: Philosophies of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Mothering (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)

Coming to Life does what too few scholarly works have dared to attempt: It takes seriously the philosophical significance of women's lived experience. Every woman, regardless of her own reproductive story, is touched by the beliefs and norms governing discourses about pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering. The volume's contributors engage in sustained reflection on women's experiences and on the beliefs, customs, and political institutions by which they are informed. They think beyond the traditional pro-choice/pro-life dichotomy, speak to the manifold nature of mothering by considering the experiences of adoptive mothers and birthmothers, and upend the belief that childrearing practices must be uniform, despite psychosexual differences in children. Many chapters reveal the radical shortcomings of conventional philosophical wisdom by placing trenchant assumptions about subjectivity, gender, power and virtue in dialogue with women's experience Coming to Philosophies of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Mothering is a superlative collection of essays that does what too few scholarly works have it takes seriously the philosophical significance of womens lived experience. Every woman, regardless of her own reproductive story, is touched by the often restrictive beliefs and norms governing discourses about pregnancy, childbirth and mothering. Thus the concerns of this anthology are relevant to all women and central to any philosophical project that takes womens lives seriously. In this volume 16 authors- including both established feminists and some of todays most innovative new scholars- engage in sustained reflection on the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering, and on the beliefs, customs, and political institutions by which those experiences are informed. Many of the topics in this collection, though familiar, are here taken up in a new contributors think beyond the traditional pro-choice/pro-life dichotomy, speak to the manifold nature of mothering by considering the experiences of adoptive mothers and birthmothers, and upend the belief that childrearing practices must be uniform despite psycho-sexual differences in children. Many chapters reveal the radical shortcomings of conventional philosophical wisdom by placing trenchant assumptions about subjectivity, gender, power and virtue in dialogue with womens experience. The volume is diverse both in its content and in its scholarly approach; certain of the essays are informed by their authors own experiences, others draw from extant narratives; many engage such canonical thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche and Heidegger, while others draw from the works of contemporary feminists including Sara Ruddick, Iris Marion Young, Virginia Held, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. All readers, regardless of their philosophical training and commitments, will find much to appreciate in this volume. In Coming to Life: Philosophies of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Mothering , 16 authors— including both established feminists and some of today's most innovative new scholars— engage in sustained reflections on the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering, and on the beliefs, customs, and political institutions by which those experiences are informed. Many of the topics in this collection, though familiar, are here taken up in a new way: contributors think beyond the traditional pro-choice/pro-life dichotomy, speak to the manifold nature of mothering by considering the experiences of adoptive mothers and birthmothers, and upend the belief that childrearing practices must be uniform despite psycho-sexual differences in children. Many chapters reveal the radical shortcomings of convention philosophical wisdom by placing trenchant assumptions about subjectivity, gender, power and virtue in dialogue with women's experience. The volume is diverse both in its content and in its scholarly approach; certain of the essays are informed by their authors’ own experiences, others draw from extant narratives; many engage such canonical male thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche and Heidegger, while others draw from the works of contemporary feminists including Sara Ruddick, Iris Marion Young, Virginia held, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. All readers, regardless of their philosophical training and commitments, will find much to appreciate in this volume Content: Foreword / Eva Kittay -- Introduction : the philosophical significance of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering / Sarah LaChance Adams and Caroline R. Lundquist -- Plato, maternity, and power : can we get a different midwife? / Cynthia D. Coe -- Of courage born : reflections on childbirth and manly courage / Kayley Varnallis -- Original habitation : pregnant flesh as absolute hospitality / Frances Gray -- The birth of sexual difference : a feminist response to Merleau-Ponty / Lisa Guenther -- Birthing responsibility : a phenomenological perspective on the moral significance of birth / Gail Weiss -- Birthmothers and maternal identity: the terms of relinquishment / Dorothy Rogers -- What's an adoptive mother to do? When your child's desires are a problem / Melissa Burchard -- The pro-choice pro-lifer : battling the false dichotomy / Bertha Alvarez Manninen -- The political "nature" of pregnancy and childbirth / Candace Johnson -- Disempowered women? The midwifery model and medical intervention / Sonya Charles -- Knock me up, knock me down : images of pregnancy in Hollywood films and popular culture / Kelly Oliver -- Exposing the breast : the animal and the abject in American attitudes toward breastfeeding / Rebecca Tuvel -- The order of life : how phenomenologies of pregnancy revise and reject theories of the subject / Talia Welsh -- The vision of the artist/mother : the strange creativity of painting and pregnancy / Florentien Verhage. In this unique philosophical anthology 16 authors- including both established feminists and some of today's most innovative new scholars- engage in sustained reflection on the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering, and on the beliefs, customs, and political institutions by which those experiences are informed.