2023-05-21 20:38:01
According to the philosopher, this exclusion of old age is also the reflection of a certain state of thought: “LPhilosophy is always written from the point of view of the healthy. Its concepts, such as revolt or civil disobedience for example, give no place to the elderly. A greater place should be given to the elderly in philosophical reflection“.
In a retirement home, time and space disappear. How to live when these fundamental dimensions of human existence have been erased? “When you can’t move from your bed, the space shrinks to almost nothing. What to think regarding in this situation? How to project yourself into the future? Time is abolished, it becomes inaccessible. What defines human existence is therefore increasingly reduced. In this case, everything had closed for my mother“.
Old age is a kind of unthinkable.
Didier Eribon, philosopher
The problem is also that old age is never a real problem in our lives: “When you’re twenty, you don’t think regarding old age. When you come into old age, you don’t want to be interested in it. And when you have reached a great age, you are no longer able to think regarding it. Old age is a kind of unthinkable.“
Reason why, according to him, we must strive to “to think regarding this question without claiming to resolve it, but to tell political leaders, trade unions and associations that this is a crucial issue for society.“
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