This book takes seriously that pregnancy is an experience typically performed by women, but that the meaning of this process should be recognized as relevant for the broader philosophical understanding of the self. Thus, the book explores the heuristic potential of pregnancy as an object for philosophical-and specifically phenomenological-investigations. By drawing from the phenomenological canon, its methodological legacy, and more contemporary contributions in the phenomenological field, Gestational Phenomenology makes a distinctive case against the conception of the self as an isolated individual and the conception of intersubjectivity as interactions between discrete and rational adult egos.

Nicole Miglio is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the State University of Milan, Italy.