Aging as Otherness: Revisiting Simone de Beauvoir's Old Age

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Aging
• Existentialism
• Phenomenology

Background:

• Aging is an under-examined topic in philosophical discourse.
• Simone de Beauvoir's "Old Age" offers critical insights into the philosophical challenges of aging.
• Existentialist philosophers like Heidegger and Sartre provide frameworks for understanding subjectivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the philosophical neglect of aging.
• To analyze Simone de Beauvoir's key arguments on old age, subjectivity, and the 'other'.
• To investigate the possibility of authentic subjectivity in later life through the lens of Heidegger and Sartre.

Main Methods:

• Revisiting and analyzing Simone de Beauvoir's philosophical work, specifically "Old Age."
• Drawing upon existentialist concepts from Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre, including 'bad faith' and 'inauthenticity'.
• Examining the philosophical implications of the 'other' in constructing or denying subjectivity in aging.

Main Results:

• Aging is presented as a state of 'unrealizability,' where embodying a subjective position is challenging.
• The concept of the 'other' plays a significant role in denying the subjectivity of the elderly.
• The possibility of aging as an authentic subjectivity is questioned, potentially being a 'chimerical undertaking'.

Conclusions:

• Despite challenges, an authentic subject position can be maintained in later life.
• Authenticity in aging is possible without succumbing to the collective, inauthentic societal image of 'a good age'.
• Heideggerian and Sartrean concepts of authenticity and bad faith offer a framework for understanding and achieving subjective integrity in old age.