Why Grow Up?: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age

In Why Grow Up? the philosopher Susan Neiman asks not just why one should grow up but how. In making her case she draws chiefly from the thought of Kant and Rousseau, who articulated very different theories on the proper way to “come of age.” But these thinkers complement each other in seeking a “path between mindlessly accepting everything you’re told and mindlessly rejecting it,” and in learning to live without despair in a world marked by painful realities and uncertainties. Neiman challenges both those who dogmatically privilege innocence and those who see youth as weakness. Her chief opponents are those who equate maturity with cynicism.