Sheila Lintott - Motherhood : philosophy for everyone : the birth of wisdom

VOLUME EDITOR

SHEILA LINTOTT is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bucknell University, and the mother of two children. She is co-editor (with Allen Carlson) of Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty (2008) and was co-editor of the American Society for Aesthetics Newsletter (20052008).

SERIES EDITOR

FRITZ ALLHOFF is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National Universitys Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, Allhoff is the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey & Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food & Philosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007).

PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE

Series editor: Fritz Allhoff

Not so much a subject matter, philosophy is a way of thinking. Thinking not just about the Big Questions, but about little ones too. This series invites everyone to ponder things they care about, big or small, significant, serious or just curious.

Running & Philosophy: A Marathon for the Mind
Edited by Michael W. Austin

Wine & Philosophy: A Symposium on Thinking and Drinking
Edited by Fritz Allhoff

Food & Philosophy: Eat, Think and Be Merry
Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe

Beer & Philosophy: The Unexamined Beer Isnt Worth Drinking
Edited by Steven D. Hales

Whiskey & Philosophy: A Small Batch of Spirited Ideas
Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Marcus P. Adams

College Sex Philosophy for Everyone: Philosophers With Benefits
Edited by Michael Bruceand Robert M. Stewart

Cycling Philosophy for Everyone: A Philosophical Tour de Force
Edited by Jess Ilundin-Agurruza and Michael W. Austin

Climbing Philosophy for Everyone: Because Its There
Edited by Stephen E. Schmid

Hunting Philosophy for Everyone: In Search of the Wild Life
Edited by Nathan Kowalsky

Christmas Philosophy for Everyone: Better Than a Lump of Coal
Edited by Scott C. Lowe

Cannabis Philosophy for Everyone: What Were We Just Talking About?
Edited by Dale Jacquette

Porn Philosophy for Everyone: How to Think With Kink
Edited by Dave Monroe

Serial Killers Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing
Edited by S. Waller

Dating Philosophy for Everyone: Flirting With Big Ideas
Edited by Kristie Miller and Marlene Clark

Gardening Philosophy for Everyone: Cultivating Wisdom
Edited by Dan OBrien

Motherhood Philosophy for Everyone: The Birth of Wisdom
Edited by Sheila Lintott

Fatherhood Philosophy for Everyone: The Dao of Daddy
Edited by Lon S. Nease and Michael W. Austin

Forthcoming books in the series:

Fashion Philosophy for Everyone
Edited by Jessica Wolfendale and Jeanette Kennett

Coffee Philosophy for Everyone
Edited by Scott Parker and Michael W. Austin

Blues Philosophy for Everyone
Edited by Abrol Fairweather and Jesse Steinberg

This edition first published 2010
2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd except for editorial material and organization
2010 Sheila Lintott

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Motherhood Philosophy for Everyone : the birth of wisdom / edited by Sheila Lintott; foreword by Judith Warner.

p. cm. (Philosophy for everyone)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4443-3028-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. MotherhoodPhilosophy. 2. Mother and child. I. Lintott, Sheila. II. Title: Motherhood Philosophy for Everyone

HQ759.M873819 2010

173dc22

2010010365

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

To my mother,
Dorothy June Lintott

JUDITH WARNER

FOREWORD

How fitting it is to have a book of essays dedicated to the subject of motherhood and philosophy. For ours is an age where philosophies of motherhood abound. They clash. They compete. They battle for preeminence. They are not, for many of their adherents, mere matters of personal preference or individual parenting style. Breast or bottle, co-sleep or cry it out, home school or preschool, 2 percent or skim, opt-in (to our competitive, performance driven society) or opt out all of these things are discussed and debated, argued over, made obsessions, with a sense of urgency that is all but universal among mothers in our time. They provide fodder for endless moralizing a not-too-moral activity very different from the serious considerations of the moral issues surrounding motherhood youll find here in the section devoted to Moms Morality. They are the material of elaborate self-justifications, the basis of too-easy judgments. They are, for many women now it seems, the building blocks of identity.