Birth is also a foundational event experienced by every being.'Ī similar bias persists in other fields. 'Simply stated, death is not the single certainty in every life. Creative ideas on birth in the writings of contemporary German philosopher, Peter Sloterdijk, as well as in recent volumes on the philosophy of birth ( Philosophical Inquiries, Coming to Life ), remain unexplored by many philosophy professors. Philosophers such as Emmanuel Levinas and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, both of whom considered issues such as pregnant embodiment in their philosophies, made much less of an impact on the field, as did Hannah Arendt who developed a theory of natality. This Heideggerian focus on death, integral to the philosopher’s work, makes a strong mark on continental philosophy of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The entire project of Martin Heidegger’s master oeuvre, Being and Time (1927), revolves around a complex discussion of how true Being is realized through a process of Dasein, or “being there,” in which a lived contemplation of death, or a Sein-zum-Tode is accomplished. Thomas Aquinas devalued the acts of childbirth and motherhood, viewing the father’s influence (right down to his semen) as most foundational in the creation of a human being, and both Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau naturalized motherhood, describing it as a romantic or naturalistic endeavor as opposed to a philosophical one. Plato categorized pregnancy and childbirth as mere bodily functions and motherhood as a sub-rational activity, while Aristotle diminished and ignored motherhood’s import beyond its connection to biology. Although a rich canonical literary tradition revolves around the latter, she explains, “we don’t have a familiar canon of nuanced literary or philosophical texts about the experience of having a child, even though having a child, too, is a profound, frightening, exhilarating, transformative experience at the boundary of life, an experience from which one comes back a different person.” There are many aspects of intellectual interest related to war, including the topic of victory, but the issue of mortality is intimately bound to the subject matter.Ĭanonical western philosophers have historically focused on universals in the human experience, including the universal of death, but they have given much less attention to birth. Lily Gurton-Wachter, Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College wrote last year about a similar gap, looking at literature about pregnancy, childbirth and parenting when compared to literature on war. 'Canonical western philosophers have historically focused on universals in the human experience, including the universal of death, but they have given much less attention to birth.' All of this begs the question: What is it about death that so attracts us, or is it that there’s something wrong with birth? Yet when it comes to human birth, investigative interest and philosophical approach fall precipitously within the academic realm. How matter first came into being is just as intriguing as the question of the universe’s demise, and we become mesmerized over again at other beginnings-the beginning of our sun, our planet, life on earth, and life in general. But this explanation loses steam when we contemplate birth and death as they exist more broadly. Anyone living has already been born, whereas death remains cloaked in mystery. Understanding the reasons behind this suppression requires a rethinking of how we address major life transitions.Ī quick explanation for the bias is that death is more interesting because people have yet to experience it. While one could argue that the historical domination of white men in the academy is part of the problem, the lopsided coverage of these two monumental endpoints of life is quite complex and cannot be reduced to it.

Some investigation reveals that intellectual approaches to birth are suppressed in both active and passive ways. Why we choose death over birth goes much deeper than simple intrigue, however. The top listing that popped up when I searched under “childbirth” in Oxford University Press, for example, was “Death in Childbirth,” and searching under “birth” in the same publication brought to the top a book called “Death before Birth.” Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world.

But if the scholarly production on these two topics is any indicator, then academics are more fascinated with death than they are with birth. The humanities study the human condition, something that begins at birth and ends in death.

Because the internet iceberg