Being Born: Birth and Philosophy

All human beings begin life by being born, and all human beings die. In these two ways we are finite: our lives are not endless, but they begin and they come to an end. Historically, however, philosophers have concentrated attention on only one of these two finitudes–our mortality. Comparatively little has been said about being born and how that shapes our existence. This book sets out to overcome this neglect of birth and to provide a philosophical account of how being born shapes the whole of our condition as human beings. By taking birth into account, this book offers an original perspective on human existence–a natal existentialism–which bears on many debates in feminist and continental philosophy and around death and the meaning of life.