Begetting

What Does It Mean to Create a Child?

Mara van der Lugt

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Press
15 June 2024

Philosophy; Ethics & moral philosophy; Philosophy of religion; History of ideas

An investigation of what it means to have children

morally, philosophically and emotionally.

'Do you want to have children?' is a question we routinely ask each other. But what does it mean to create a child? Is this decision always justified? Does anyone really have the moral right to create another person? In Begetting, Mara van der Lugt attempts to fill in the moral background of procreation. Drawing on both philosophy and popular culture, van der Lugt does not provide a definitive answer on the morality of having a child; instead, she helps us find the right questions to ask.

Most of the time, when we talk about whether to have children, what we are really talking about is whether we want to have children. Van der Lugt shows why this is not enough. To consider having children, she argues, is to interrogate our own responsibility and commitments, morally and philosophically and also personally. What does it mean to bring a new creature into the world, to decide to perform an act of creation? What does it mean to make the decision that life is worth living on behalf of a person who cannot be consulted? These questions are part of a conversation we should have started long ago. Van der Lugt does not ignore the problematic aspects of procreation

ethical, environmental and otherwise. But she also acknowledges the depth and complexity of the intensely human desire to have a child of our own blood and our own making.

By: Mara van der Lugt
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691240503
ISBN 10: 0691240507
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 15 June 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Mara van der Lugt is lecturer in philosophy at the University of St Andrews, where she specialises in early modern intellectual history and philosophy. She is the author of Dark Matters: Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering and Bayle, Jurieu, and the 'Dictionnaire Historique et Critique'.

Reviews for Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child?

"""Bidding someone forth, conjuring a new person from a couple of cells, is an act of tremendous magnitude, one whose meaning is perhaps too great and abstract to grasp or articulate with any precision. . . . This, in the end, is Van der Lugt’s request of us: to pose the question of begetting to ourselves, and to answer it for only ourselves.""---Anna Louie Sussman, The Atlantic ""[Van der Lugt’s] contagious intellectual curiosity—and willingness to make room for unanswered questions—will keep readers glued to the page. It’s an ambitious look at some of life’s most foundational questions."" * Publishers Weekly * ""A highly thought-provoking and informative read. . . .A must-read for anyone.""---Ilina Jha, Redbrick Culture"