CFP: Philosophical Papers: Aging and the Elderly

Guest Editors: Samantha Vice and Tom Martin (Rhodes University)

Expected contributors include Roger Scruton, David Velleman, and John Cottingham.

Our understanding and experience of aging, both of ourselves and others, is fraught with ambivalence, fear, and suspicion. Despite the ethical challenges raised by aging and the elderly, old age ‘is a topic that philosophers by and large have ignored’, wrote Mary Mothersill in her Presidential Address to the American Philosophical Association in 1998. This special issue of Philosophical Papers takes up Mothersill’s challenge to encourage reflection on aging and the philosophical issues it raises.

Possible questions and topics for discussion include, but are not limited to:

• The concept of aging: What is aging? What are its distinctive features?
• How should we understand the process of aging in our attempts to lead a worthwhile life?
• Aging and the narrative self; aging in the narrative of a life.
• Aging and the virtues: can one age in better or worse ways?
• The phenomenology of aging: aging and the body; aging and the sense of self.
• What effects, if any, does aging have on autonomy and self-control? Can current theories of autonomy accommodate the process of aging?
• What, if any, is the significance of the relationship between aging and sexuality?
• Aesthetics and aging: norms of beauty and the view of the aging body; the politics and ethics of representations of the aging body.
• Is longevity valuable in itself?
• What, if any, is the significance of the relationship between aging and death?
• The meaning and challenges of retirement.
• What are our duties – of care, and otherwise – to the elderly, and how do we best meet them?
• Relations between the young and the old: inter-generational conflict, respect, and veneration.
• Political and social discrimination against the elderly.
• What are the economic, social and political challenges of an aging population, and how do we best meet them?

The deadline for receipt of submissions is 30 June 2012. This special issue ofPhilosophical Papers, which will contain both invited and submitted papers, will appear in November 2012.

Authors should submit manuscripts electronically, prepared as a PDF or word document attachment, and emailed [email protected]>.

Authors should include their full name, affiliation and address for email correspondence with their submission.

Further enquiries can be addressed to Samantha Vice ([email protected]) or Ward Jones, Editor, Philosophical Papers ([email protected]).