Philosophical Perspectives on Aging: Vulnerability and Imperfection

https://syddanskuni.zoom.us/j/62917273094 

Monday, May 17 

(All times shown as Central European Summer Time) 

10.45-11.00        Welcome and Introduction (Piergiorgio Donatelli

                            & Søren Harnow Klausen)

11.00-11.45        Karen Lancaster (Univ. of Nottingham): Universal

                            and Variable Dignity

12.00-12.45         Piotr Karpiński (The Catholic Academy in Warsaw): 

                             Ethics of Vulnerability (CANCELLED)

12.45-13.30 Break

13.30-14.15         Alex Gillham (St. Bonaventure Univ.): An Epicurean 

                              Philosophy of Aging (pre-recorded)

14.30-15.15         Abel B. Franco (California State Univ.): Aging and

                              the Tragic Burden of Memory: A Source of Joy?

15.30-16.15         Christopher Fruge (Rutgers): Permanent Value

16.30-17.15         Camille Irvine (Guelph): Relational End-of-Life Care  

                               Practices and the Covid-19 Restrictions

Tuesday, May 18

(All times shown as Central European Summer Time) 

10.00-10.45         Maja Berseneva (Freie Univ. Berlin): On Aging Faces

11.00-11.45         Roshni Babu (Independent): Loss of Virility and

                             Disembodiment of Memory:Philosophy of Aging 

                             in Indian Modernity

12.00-12.45         Marjolein Oele (Univ. of San Francisco): A

                              Phenomenology of Aging: Aging-Related

                              Illness, Material-Social

                              Constellations, and Slow Death

12.45-13.30         Break

13.30-14.15         Eric Wilkinson (McGill): Stoicism and Growing Old

14.30-15.15         MaryKate Gaurke (Georgetown): Being-in-the-World

                             with Dementia

15.30-16.15         Peter Koch (Villanova): Vulnerability, Frailty and a

                             Capabilities-Based Approach to Well-Being

The seminar will develop philosophical perspectives on aging and the life course. One central focus is vulnerability and imperfection. Elderly people are standardly categorized as vulnerable, but vulnerability tends to be understood in a narrowly biomedical way, rather than being seen as a part of life, conceived biographically and existentially and tied to the life form. Dominant approaches to aging are based, explicitly or explicitly, on age-neutral standards or inflated notions of flourishing, health or managing life. The seminar will explore conceptions of aging that take into fuller account the intricacies of human nature and the human condition and are sensitive to the particularities of different stages in life. The notion of dignity is often invoked in attempts to state the conditions for a sufficiently good life in old age; but it is either defined very abstractly, e.g. on the model of Kantian ethics, or left more or less obscure. Ideas of aging “dignified” or “gracefully”, of “coming to terms with aging” or of “maturing” or “achieving wisdom”, as well as notions of the “melancholy” or “tragedy” of aging deserve closer scrutiny and interpretation.