Ricca Edmondson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781847425935
- eISBN:
- 9781447311737
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847425935.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Life-course meaning and insight remain stubbornly significant for (older) people: it is damaging to inhabit societies that believe existence loses meaning after paid employment ceases. This view ...
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Life-course meaning and insight remain stubbornly significant for (older) people: it is damaging to inhabit societies that believe existence loses meaning after paid employment ceases. This view amounts to the social exclusion of older people, needing to be countered both politically and by exploring alternative interpretations of older age. Using examples from the author’s experience in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria and the US, the book deploys a confluence of disciplinary approaches, exploring compelling versions of later-life meaning in everyday life and gerontological literature. In earlier chapters it interrogates taken-for-granted practices making it harder to attach meaning to later life, including problems in discussing ethics, everyday reasoning, or the importance of human connectedness. It then examines varieties of meaning attributed to later life among gerontologists and older people themselves: meaning as stressing connectedness with values or practices outside individuals; meaning stressing (life-)time, life-course development and ‘generativity’; and meaning as insight, including inside into the human condition, and wisdom. Exploring these, the book uses ‘reconstructive ethnography’ to interpret meaning connected with time, narrative and practice. It probes ideas about wisdom in psychology and philosophy, including Aristotle’s connection of wisdom with reasoning, ethics, and urgent practical politics in uncertain circumstances. The book offers a social, transactional account of wisdom, used in co-operation among imperfect individuals who together can achieve more than they could alone. It illustrates the appeal of this idea in art and everyday life: reviving ideas about wisdom offers coherence, hope and meaning for social and individual life-course aims.Less
Life-course meaning and insight remain stubbornly significant for (older) people: it is damaging to inhabit societies that believe existence loses meaning after paid employment ceases. This view amounts to the social exclusion of older people, needing to be countered both politically and by exploring alternative interpretations of older age. Using examples from the author’s experience in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria and the US, the book deploys a confluence of disciplinary approaches, exploring compelling versions of later-life meaning in everyday life and gerontological literature. In earlier chapters it interrogates taken-for-granted practices making it harder to attach meaning to later life, including problems in discussing ethics, everyday reasoning, or the importance of human connectedness. It then examines varieties of meaning attributed to later life among gerontologists and older people themselves: meaning as stressing connectedness with values or practices outside individuals; meaning stressing (life-)time, life-course development and ‘generativity’; and meaning as insight, including inside into the human condition, and wisdom. Exploring these, the book uses ‘reconstructive ethnography’ to interpret meaning connected with time, narrative and practice. It probes ideas about wisdom in psychology and philosophy, including Aristotle’s connection of wisdom with reasoning, ethics, and urgent practical politics in uncertain circumstances. The book offers a social, transactional account of wisdom, used in co-operation among imperfect individuals who together can achieve more than they could alone. It illustrates the appeal of this idea in art and everyday life: reviving ideas about wisdom offers coherence, hope and meaning for social and individual life-course aims.
Ricca Edmondson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781847425935
- eISBN:
- 9781447311737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847425935.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Chapter 4 interrogates the notion of wisdom, reviewing work by psychologists and others, including the type of deliberation Aristotle associates with wisdom. He sees it as characteristic of human ...
More
Chapter 4 interrogates the notion of wisdom, reviewing work by psychologists and others, including the type of deliberation Aristotle associates with wisdom. He sees it as characteristic of human beings to use wise reasoning to share values and reach decisions about what is right, in both strategic and ethical senses: the highest type of discourse possible in our lives in the community. Accounts of wisdom may be perfectionist, demanding lofty individual achievement, but those preferred here are more hospitable to human imperfection. In this reading, wisdom is portrayed as engaged in by ordinary people, collaborating to achieve more insight than they could reach on their own. The chapter next explores related exchanges in art or literature, including popular films, examining their widespread appeal. Lastly, it gives examples from the author’s ethnographic research, based on familiarity with local practices, yielding a transactional, social account of wisdom highly applicable to later life.Less
Chapter 4 interrogates the notion of wisdom, reviewing work by psychologists and others, including the type of deliberation Aristotle associates with wisdom. He sees it as characteristic of human beings to use wise reasoning to share values and reach decisions about what is right, in both strategic and ethical senses: the highest type of discourse possible in our lives in the community. Accounts of wisdom may be perfectionist, demanding lofty individual achievement, but those preferred here are more hospitable to human imperfection. In this reading, wisdom is portrayed as engaged in by ordinary people, collaborating to achieve more insight than they could reach on their own. The chapter next explores related exchanges in art or literature, including popular films, examining their widespread appeal. Lastly, it gives examples from the author’s ethnographic research, based on familiarity with local practices, yielding a transactional, social account of wisdom highly applicable to later life.
