Flourishing while withering: an explication and critique of Simone de Beauvoir’s phenomenology of aging

IF 1.2 3区哲学 0 PHILOSOPHY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY REVIEW Pub Date : 2023-12-02 DOI:10.1007/s11007-023-09621-3

Fredrik Svenaeus

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Abstract

This paper explores the process of aging from a phenomenological perspective. Supplementing the model of becoming old found in Simone de Beauvoir’s work with a phenomenology of human suffering and flourishing, it asks whether it is possible to lead a good life in the process of becoming old. Is it possible to flourish while experiencing bodily waning? Is it possible to flourish while experiencing the shrinking of one’s everyday world and the passing away of close others? Aging, at least in its protracted phases, appears to become full of suffering rather than flourishing. What are the prospects of finding meaningful life projects despite old age? By making use of insight found in Heidegger and other phenomenologists the paper tries to develop a slightly different view on aging than the one found in Beauvoir, stressing the importance of embodied experiences and life choices, which not only depend upon societal oppression and being objectified by others, but also upon processes of nature and the possibilities of an intergenerational intersubjectivity. Resources for this project is found in the philosophy of affectivity developed by Heidegger and other phenomenologists of facticity, such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Charles Taylor, Helmuth Plessner and Hannah Arendt.

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在枯萎中茁壮成长:波伏娃衰老现象学的阐释与批判

本文从现象学的角度探讨了衰老的过程。它用人类苦难和繁荣的现象学来补充西蒙娜·德·波伏娃(Simone de Beauvoir)作品中的变老模型，询问在变老的过程中是否有可能过上美好的生活。有可能在经历身体衰退的同时蓬勃发展吗?在经历日常世界的萎缩和亲近的人的去世时，有可能繁荣吗?衰老，至少在其漫长的阶段，似乎变得充满痛苦而不是繁荣。尽管人老了，找到有意义的生活计划的前景如何?通过利用海德格尔和其他现象学家的见解，本文试图发展一种与波伏娃的观点稍微不同的老龄化观点，强调具体化的经验和生活选择的重要性，这不仅取决于社会压迫和被他人客观化，而且取决于自然过程和代际主体间性的可能性。这个项目的资源可以在海德格尔和其他事实现象学家(如莫里斯·梅洛-庞蒂、查尔斯·泰勒、赫尔穆斯·普莱斯纳和汉娜·阿伦特)发展的情感哲学中找到。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY REVIEW PHILOSOPHY-

CiteScore

1.90

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The central purpose of Continental Philosophy Review is to foster a living dialogue within the international community on philosophical issues of mutual interest. It seeks to elicit, discussions of fundamental philosophical problems and original approaches to them. Broadly encompassing in its focus, the journal invites essays on both expressly theoretical topics and topics dealing with practical problems that extend to the wider domain of socio-political life. It encourages explorations in the domains of art, morality, science and religion as they relate to specific philosophical concerns. Although not an advocate of any one trend or school in philosophy, the journal is especially committed to keeping abreast of developments within phenomenology and contemporary continental philosophy and is interested in investigations that probe possible points of intersection between the continental European and the Anglo-American traditions. Continental Philosophy Review contains review articles of recent, original works in philosophy. It provides considerable space for such reviews, allowing critics to develop their comments and assessments at some length.