The existential dimension to aging

Abstract

In their recent book Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations about Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles, and Regret (2017), Martha C. Nussbaum and Saul Levmore consider their subject from two different personal and professional perspectives (phi-losophy and law, respectively) through the lenses of eight different topics: domination and control; forced retirement; friendship; the human body as it ages, primarily in aesthetic terms; backward-looking emotions; love in the later stages of life; wealth inequities among those who are older; and legacies. Yet they overlook other parts of the aging process that can be approached “thoughtfully,” most importantly what I have termed the existential parts of aging, such as senescence; the “medicalization” of life; the issue of where, how, and with whom one will live in one’s later years; and the family dynamics that assist in and impinge on the aging process. I explore these existential dimensions through several other writings on aging, as well as through my own experience.