Abstract

What does it mean to be born, or to give birth? I explore the relation between ethics and time through a phenomenology of birth, understood as the gift of the Other. My birth is not my own; apart from death, it is that moment when I am least present as a self-determining subject. But unlike death, birth binds me to an Other without whom I could not exist. This difference opens the possibility of understanding time in its ethical dimensions, as time from an Other and for the Other. To be born is to be engendered for responsibility; it is to be given the imperative to give to Others. ;Part I, Given Birth, discusses the significance of being born for Heidegger, Arendt and Levinas. Heidegger interprets birth as an inheritance or "heritage" which Dasein hands down to itself by authentically "repeating" the past. I argue that this self-inheritance tends to obscure the sense in which one is born to an Other. Arendt understands birth as the initiation of someone new into a political world; thanks to natality, we are given the promise of a different, more hopeful future. Finally, Levinas suggests an interpretation of birth as being welcomed into a home by the feminine Other. This formulation begins to articulate the ethical dimensions of birth; and yet it also raises questions about the status of sexual difference in the work of Levinas. ;Part II, Giving Birth, explores the ethical and temporal dimensions of maternity and paternity in Beauvoir, Levinas, and selected biblical texts. In particular, I consider Levinas' articulation of responsibility as becoming "like a maternal body" for the stranger. To become like a maternal body is to give time to the Other, opening up a past of forgiveness and a future of promise. It is to remember the immemorial gift of birth, while metaphorically passing it on to a stranger. But the sexual specificity of maternity raises questions which can only be addressed through feminist analysis. How can we explore the richness of the maternal metaphor, and its implications for ethics, without making the embodied "reality" of motherhood disappear?