Choosing Life: Affirming a Human Future in an Imperfect World

Presented in collaboration with the Honors College. Rachel Wiseman and Anastasia Berg join us at 101 Archer to discuss their book, “What Are Children For?​ On Ambivalence and Choice.” The book analyses the increasing ambivalence about having children and explores the philosophical resources available to overcome it. Peeling back the layers of resistance, “What Are Children For?” argues that when we make the individual decision whether or not to have children we confront a profound philosophical question, that of the goodness of our form life itself. How can we justify perpetuating human life given the catastrophic harm and suffering of which we are always at once both victims and perpetrators? To meet this challenge we must, we argue, uncover a capacity to grasp the fundamental goodness of human life—not only theoretically but practically in the actual lives we lead today.

Wiseman and Berg both work for The Point magazine as managing editor and senior editor, respectively. This conversation is free and open to the Tulsa community.