Session 4A: Wisdom and Old Age
1st Global Conference
Friday 3rd July – Saturday 5th July 2009
Mansfield College, Oxford
Wisdom and Old Age
Giuliana Di Biase
Department of Philosophy, University G. d’Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara, Italy
The topos which connects old age to wisdom is probably one of the most ancient, but it presents significant variations in the course of time. Only if we consider wisdom as an end which requires time to be acquired , old Age will appear the favourite moment to obtain it. But, of course, we must make clear what we mean when we speak of wisdom: first of all, it is important to consider whether an old, wise age is a state which can be desiderated by itself. The greek man as depicted in Sofocle and Euripide?s tragedies may not aspire to a long life which will inevitably be full of pain, and in which the only wisdom that can be acquired by men is one that connects firmly an happy existence to dying before their children and to a glorious ending in a battle. Plato and Aristotle tell us that it takes a lot of time, and most of all a lot of training in a good life, to become a philosopher, that is one which loves Sophia: so, governors in the platonic Republic will be necessarily old aged men. Anyway, rarely old people in platonic dialogues are luminous example of wisdom (sometimes, instead, they are examples of great vices), and most of all, Sophia is not, for Plato and Aristotle, an equivalent of Wisdom, whose field of application is practical life, not theoretical one. In the Old Testament , although respect is considered an attitude due to old people, we meet a singular voice in the book of Sapienza, where the author says that non always young people will show less wisdom than old ones. In any case, the link between wisdom and old age seems to affirm itself as a product of more perspectives, which must be investigated in more detail.
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The Late Life Creativity of Herman Hesse and Thomas Mann
John-Raphael Staude
Osher Institute for Continued Learning, University of California at San Diego, USA
In this presentation I will discuss the lives and creative work of Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse in their later years as an example of late life creativity. I will base my analysis on Cohen’s model of the stages of adult development and creativity. I treat Mann and Hesse as members of a generation born in 1875 that went through midlife during the First World War and late life in World War Two and after. In my talk I present some generalizations about late life creativity and the significance of last works.
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Practical Wisdom and Overall Life Satisfaction in Aging
Sheila Mason
Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
In this paper we present the findings of an intensive qualitative life review study based on extensive interviews of 100 elderly people. We found a correlation between what we have called ‘emergent values’, the occurrence of value terms in their reflections on many aspects of their lives, with higher overall life satisfaction [Dolores Pushkar, et al. 2003]. And, while there are various ways to interpret the findings, one plausible way is i. to relate it to other studies in the emerging field of positive psychology [George E. Vaillant 2008, Mikhail Csikszentmilhalyi , Jonathan Haidt 2003,] and wisdom studies [Paul B. Baltes 2000] as well as neurological studies of the role of the ‘emotional brain’ in good judgment and life management [Joseph LeDoux 1996 , Antonio Damasio 1994, Daniel Goleman 1995,] and ii. to compare the findings of these studies with neo-Aristotelian virtue theory, [John McDowell 2002, David Wiggins 2002, Martha Nussbaum 1990, Nancy Sherman 1997] which views positive emotions as intentional mental states, essential to good moral judgment. In these psychological, neurological and philosophical studies similar organizing concepts facilitate a broader understanding of the ways that wisdom develops and can be cultivated. In part I we outline the findings of the life-review study. In Part II we review the psychological and neurological literature. In Part III we review the philosophical literature. In Part IV we summarize the common findings in all three sections drawing up a list of practical ways in which elderly people can cultivate and reinforce positive emotions and an enhanced sense of values. These include positive reminiscence, maintaining skills and activities, reflection on narratives of positive emotional experience, experiences of awe and gratitude, and other strategies for enhancing positive states.
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