The Rotman Institute and Brain and Mind Institute have recently welcomed many new additions into our families. One amazing feature of bringing new babies into the world is to witness, first hand, how our social brains develop, and to reflect on the various philosophical puzzles this information generates. Thankfully, several psychologists, developmental neuroscientists and philosophers have reflected on these problems in great detail — making good reads in between changing diapers, feeding, and relaxing with our families during nap-time. In no particular order: 

Rebecca Kukla’s Mass Hysteria: Medicine, Culture, and Mother’s Bodies : a fascinating read on the medicalization of pregnancy in the late eighteenth century.

Lise Eliot’s Pink Brain, Blue Brain : an in-depth review of the relationship between neuropsychological gendering versus the gender norms placed on male and female babies by parents, family and friends. 

Alison Gopnik’s The Philosophical Baby : a philosophical and scientific analysis of the development of rational faculties and moral sense from the day children are born. 

Enjoy!