History, Inheritance, and Vulnerability
This chapter describes the complex relations amongst being born and birth-giving, mothers, women, and child-caring, and then defends the view that Western culture has concentrated narrowly on death at the expense of birth, taking existentialism’s focus on mortality as a case in point. Three aspects of natality are then examined. First, reception and inheritance: in dialogue with Camus and Beauvoir, it is argued that to be born is to receive and inherit the meaningful fabric of our lives and involvements from others around and preceding us. Second, vulnerability: the chapter distinguishes vulnerability in being born—coming into existence in more or less advantageous locations in the world—from vulnerability by virtue of being born—as infants who are helpless and so depend on adult care-givers. Third, negativity: being born is not an exclusively positive condition but has a negative side, in part through its links with vulnerability.