Aging and the Art of Living

Jan Baars is professor of interpretive gerontology at the University for Humanities in Utrecht. He is author and co-editor of almost twenty books, including Aging, Globalization, and Inequality: The New Critical Gerontology, in English, German, French, Finnish, and Dutch.

Any college-level collection strong in aging and social insights on the process will find this a thought-provoking discussion. Midwest Book Review This is a vision infused with hope and potential, and in this lies the art of living meaningfully. The last chapters in which Baars describes the rich possibilities of individual story and proposes an alternative idea of aging well are worth the trip. Choice Recognizing life's finitude, honoring one's own personal story, nurturing intergenerational relationships, and seeking to live wisely are among the important ingredients for living the art of aging. Simply raising these issues and helping the reader to understand their importance are reasons enough to encounter this intense yet highly intelligent book. -- E. Michael Brady Educational Gerontology Aging and the Art of Living revitalizes the origins of philosophy which began with the search for the good life... This well-written and clearly organized book weaves poetic insights with precise reflections on topics that include living in time, wisdom, and the meaning of aging. This book makes significant and unique contributions to gerontology by challenging assumptions, articulating alternative perspectives, and inspiring new possibilities for aging and living fully. -- Debra Sheets Canadian Journal on Aging This publication -- which contains an endless wealth of spurs to thought and engagement -- should initiate a long and important conversation in which we learn to treat and to experience ageing more critically, much more creatively and with greater enjoyment. -- Ricca Edmondson Ageing and Society Jan Baars is the premier philosopher of aging, working in Europe and the United States today. Actually, to call him a philosopher of aging is to diminish the range of his thought and his accomplishments. -- Thomas R. Cole The Gerontologist

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe Chronocratic Emperor Has No ClothesOverview1. Chronometric Regimes: The Life Course, Aging, and TimeIntroduction1.1. Historical Backgrounds of the Chronometric Life CourseA Biographical SandglassAge in Social LegislationLate Modern Systemic Worlds and Life Worlds1.2. Chronometric Life Courses: Beyond Standardization and De-standardizationThe Continuing Importance of Chronometric AgeChronometric Regimes1.3. Care and Its Chronometric RegimesChronometric Care and Its AccelerationTime-efficient Lives1.4. Chronometric Aging: Exactly ArbitraryIntrinsic Time and Intrinsic MalleabilityThe Heisenberg Principle of AgingConclusions2. Exclusion, Activism, and Eternal YouthIntroduction2.1. From Natural Passivity to Activating Activities for Older PeopleFrom "Idleness with Dignity" to Being as Being BusyStay Active: "Use It or Lose It"2.2. The Emergence of an Anti-aging Culture"Don't Call 'em Old, Call 'em Consumers!""Take Years Off Your Looks and Add Them to Your Life"2.3. The Much-desired Long and Invulnerable Life: Magic and Magic TechnologyA Fundamental VulnerabilityConclusions3. A Passion for Wisdom and the Emergence of an Art of AgingIntroduction3.1. Early Greek Thought about the Life CourseSolon's Untraditional Views3.2. The Search for Wisdom and the Emergence of an Art of LifePlato's AcademyAristotle's LyceumThe Garden of EpicurusThe StoicsWisdom, Aging, and Old Age3.3. Cicero and the Stoic Art of Living in Old AgeCiceroCato Maior de Senectute: On Old AgeCicero's Defense of Old Age against Four ComplaintsA Statesman's View of Old AgeConclusions4. Modern Science, the Discovery of a Personal History,and Aging AuthenticallyIntroduction4.1. Aging in a World of Meaningful Repetition4.2. (Ir)reversible Time and the Senescing of OrganismsDoes Nature Repeat Itself Eternally?Nature Changes and Time Is IrreversibleSenescing, Irreversible Time, and the Organism4.3. The Idealization of Science and the Epistemological Reduction of Time4.4. The Struggle for a Fuller Experience of TimeAugustine: A Threefold PresentBergson: Time as CreativityHusserl: The Phenomenological Experience of TimeHeidegger: Authentic Temporal Being in the Face of DeathTime Is Lived in Constitutive Life WorldsConclusions5. Aging and Narrative IdentitiesIntroduction5.1. Embedding Aging in NarrativesNarratives and Narrative IdentityNarrative Integration as a "Good Life"Life Plans"Real Stories" and Textual Issues5.2. Modest Necessity of StoriesChanges, Themes, and PhasesStories: Intertwining the Past, the Present, and the FutureInstitutional Narrative PracticesNarratives if the Life World and the Systemic WorldConclusions6. Perspectives—Toward an Art of AgingIntroduction6.1. Interhuman Vulnerability and the Dignity of "Unsuccessful" AgingThe Vulnerability of the Interhuman ConditionAging and Increasing VulnerabilityThe Dignity of "Unsuccessful" AgingAutonomy and Structural Paternalism6.2. Toward an Art of Aging: Beyond Conventional WisdomOlder and Wiser?6.3. Toward an Art of Aging: Living in Different TimesA Multi-layered PresentKairos: A Sensitivity for Changing Temporal QualitiesActivism and ReceptivityMemories Have Their Own TimesActions Constitute TimeLife Events and Life's PeriodsThe Times of Life Are FiniteA Last Question about the Beginning of Time6.4. Toward an Art of Aging: Beyond Longer LivesAging as Finitization: A Deepening of Unique LivesUnique Lives: Empirical and EthicalContingent and Existential LimitationsWhy Do We Age? How Can Aging Be Meaningful?Is It Good to Live Longer?ReferencesIndex