A wry and witty meditation on modernitys obsession with youth and its denigration of maturityIn 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 youre 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. In our day it is more common to meet people who are stuck in the mire of adolescence.
