Art of Living and Art of Aging

Hanne Laceulle and Joseph Dohmen focus on the need of older individuals to choose and act in a self-determined way, to find motivation and inspiration, and to optimally realize their potential. In taking this agential perspective, they connect the humanist tradition of moral self-development to the context of aging. They successively describe historical perspectives on the art of living in Western philosophy and the contemporary revival of it as a moral lifestyle that can help people respond to the challenges of a post-traditional society. Subsequently, they explore how the revival of the art of living can be applied to the context of aging. In doing so, they emphasize three themes that form the backbone of the art of living tradition: autonomy, authenticity, and virtue. These themes are also discussed in the gerontological literature in the context of pressing ethical, spiritual, and existential questions related to old age. Laceulle and Dohmen plead to further integrate the art of living discourse in gerontology and propose to transform the humanistic “art of living” into a viable “art of aging”.