All human beings are born and die, something that makes us finite: our lives are not endless, but have a beginning and an end. Historically, however, philosophers have focused their attention on only one of these two ways in which we are finite: mortality. Philosophers have reflected little on birth and what it means for our existence. An exception are some recent works in feminist philosophy, such as those of Luce Irigaray and Adriana Cavarero, but even here, the fact of birth is eclipsed by childbirth and motherhood.
How can birth influence human existence? First, let's clarify that for human beings, being born means beginning to exist at a given time through conception, gestation and exit from the uterus (historically the mother's womb, although transgender pregnancies are changing this situation). Therefore, we reach the world with a specific body and in a specific place, under a set of relationships and a social, cultural and historical situation.
Because babies and younger children are helpless (as well as their food and education needs), we humans begin a life totally dependent on the people who take care of us physically and emotionally. Often, over time we become more independent, but never completely or permanently, since we all continue to depend on other people in regards to our livelihoods, language, emotional well-being and basic social trust. Once we remember that our life began as babies, dependence emerges as something more basic than independence, since independence takes place in a context of dependence and not vice versa.
Because of this initial dependence, the first relationships with our caregivers have enormous effects on the formation of our person: our emotional reaction patterns, our attitudes, our habits and our character (and their personalities). None of this is invariable: we can, of course, be deeply affected and reformed by subsequent relationships, but we are open to new relationships according to the previous ones. When we consider birth we realize that relationships with other people are what the individuals that we are do to us: our individual self arises from a background of personal relationships.
I'm like this
At birth, each individual is in a unique situation in the world, composed of a unique combination of historical, social, ethnic, geographic, family and generational circumstances. A person's initial birth status affects all subsequent situations in his life, including the decisions he makes in response to those situations. All successive situations occur throughout life, even indirectly, from birth.
We do not choose the circumstances in which we are born and as soon as we reach the world we begin to drink from the culture that surrounds us. So, first and foremost, we are heirs and recipients of culture and history, being able to develop capabilities to question, criticize and change what we have received, but all based on what we have received.
Why do I have the life I have in particular since I was born? You may ask me: "Why is it me?" or "Why is this the life I have and no other?" Eastern and Western religious traditions offer several answers. For example, Christianity refers to our souls as immortal and Hinduism speaks of reincarnation. But my birth may be a fact that cannot be explained, only accepted.
We can explain, at least to some extent, why the body we were born with has been conceived (our parents met, a particular sperm fertilized an egg on a certain occasion, etc.). But that does not explain why this body is the one that harbors my life and with which I experience it. This is just an inexplicable fact., a dimension of mystery that permeates our existence and that can generate anxiety (one of several forms of birth anxiety). Some philosophers (Heidegger, for example) have talked a lot about anxiety about death, but being born also presents existential anxieties and difficulties.
The first days
It may be that the fact that we have come into existence without having previously been here is disconcerting and we may worry that we cannot remember being born or our first days, something known as "childhood amnesia."
This amnesia is a consequence of the development in stages of our memory and cognitive systems during childhood. As we develop more advanced forms of memory, we lose access to previous memories established in less developed forms of memory. In turn, our cognitive development in stages is a consequence of birth: we are born very immature and untrained, but we just developed and managed to reach high levels of cognitive complexity.
However, those first years that we forget are the most important for our formation as human beings. Therefore, most of our emotional life is a mystery: Why do we fall in love and become disillusioned with certain people? Why does this song make my tears jump or make me sad? Childhood amnesia makes us feel weird in important aspects of our lives and is very disconcerting.
These are just some of the characteristics of human existence that are highlighted once we remember that we not only die, but we are also born and birth is a fundamental, not trivial or accidental, characteristic of human life and existence. Human in general has the form it has because we were born.
Author: Alison Stone, Professor of Philosophy, Lancaster University.
This article has originally been published in The Conversation. You can read the original article here.
Translated by Silvestre Urbón
