What Are Children For?
On Ambivalence and Choice
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A modern argument, grounded in philosophy and cultural criticism, about childbearing ambivalence and how to overcome it
Becoming a parent, once the expected outcome of adulthood, is increasingly viewed as a potential threat to the most basic goals and aspirations of modern life. We seek self-fulfillment; we want to liberate women to find meaning and self-worth outside the home; and we wish to protect the planet from the ravages of climate change. Weighing the pros and cons of having children, Millennials and Zoomers are finding it increasingly difficult to judge in its favor.
With lucid argument and passionate prose, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman offer the guidance necessary to move beyond uncertainty. The decision whether or not to have children, they argue, is not just a women's issue but a basic human one. And at a time when climate change worries threaten the very legitimacy of human reproduction, Berg and Wiseman conclude that neither our personal nor collective failures ought to prevent us from embracing the fundamental goodness of human life--not only in the present but, in choosing to have children, in the future.
About this Author
Anastasia Berg is an assistant professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is an editor of The Point, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Times Literary Supplement, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Chronicle of Higher Education Review.
Rachel Wiseman is the managing editor of The Point magazine. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Point, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Reviews
"[A]n engaging, literary investigation ... a book for lovers of sound reasoning. A corrective to liberal neuroses about having kids, one that feels necessary at a time when the right wants to dictate the terms of the family."--Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker
"A smart, fascinating look at one of the most vital questions women face."--Katha Pollitt, The Washington Post
"Fascinating...Reading their discussions of motherhood literature and climate change fiction (an achingly self-congratulatory genre), and their quiet probing of our youth-obsessed, shallow existence, I found myself astonished by the lucidity of their insights."--Ann Manov, The New Statesman
"Resisting easy answers ... [Berg and Wiseman] ... offer scrupulous analysis enriched by vivid personal meditations ...It's an incisive look at a monumental life choice"--Publishers Weekly
"This is a brave, lucid book, and Berg and Wiseman deserve great credit for their readiness to ask tough questions."--Kirkus Reviews
"Aptly highlights the paradoxes of parenting and gives readers grappling with the question of whether or not to have children an honest and balanced perspective that will help them decide what's right for them."--Library Journal
"In their widely researched and patiently argued book, Berg and Wiseman show how competing ideas about freedom, happiness, love, dignity, and justice attach to the increasingly ambivalent acts of having and raising children. What Are Children For? models the curiosity and the skepticism we need to imagine a collective future in dark times."--Merve Emre, author of The Personality Brokers
"By far the most honest, unsentimental, unpredictable, and rigorously thoughtful exploration of parenting that I have ever read. Berg and Wiseman's debut is a much-needed and impressively original inquiry into a topic that is almost always treated in deadeningly stale terms."--Becca Rothfeld, author of All Things Are Too Small
"A lucid and sophisticated treatment of a question we all share a stake in: Ought there be future generations? Carving out a conversation about parenthood and the future that's undisturbed by the warping effects of the culture wars, the book ably addresses contemporary challenges to parenthood--both practical and political--while developing its own optimistic case for human life."--Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic
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