Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations about Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles, and Regret - Hardcover

Nussbaum, Martha C.; Levmore, Saul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190600233 ISBN 13: 9780190600235

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2017

Synopsis

We all age differently, but we can learn from shared experiences and insights. The conversations, or paired essays, in Aging Thoughtfully combine a philosopher's approach with a lawyer-economist's.

Here are ideas about when to retire, how to refashion social security to help the elderly poor, how to learn from King Lear -- who did not retire successfully -- and whether to enjoy or criticize anti-aging cosmetic procedures. Some of the concerns are practical: philanthropic decisions, relations with one's children and grandchildren, the purchase of annuities, and how to provide for care in old age. Other topics are cultural, ranging from the treatment of aging women in a Strauss opera and various popular films, to a consideration of Donald Trump's (and other men's) marriages to much younger women.

These engaging, thoughtful, and often humorous exchanges show how stimulating discussions about our inevitable aging can be, and offer valuable insight into how we all might age more thoughtfully, and with zest and friendship.

About this title

About the Author:

Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Love's Knowledge, Sex and Social Justice, Animal Rights (edited with Cass Sunstein), From Disgust to Humanity, and Philosophical Interventions, among many.

Saul Levmore is Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School. He is the co-author of American Guy: Masculinity in American Law and Literature.

Review:

"Nussbaum and Levmore have written a sweet book on 'humanomics,' deploying economics, law, philosophy, and literature, to craft a multidisciplinary guide to aging. They show that the stories imagined for our lives and our societies give us purchase in a way that science or history cannot quite. Wise in age themselves, Nussbaum and Levmore know full well that tips handed over on a plate like canaps cannot be the point. Old and young need this book."
-Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics and of History Emerita, University of Illinois Chicago

"Aging Thoughtfully advances that goal, portraying the aging process as both universal and utterly idiosyncratic, and urging us to learn from each other and our shared history."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"Not just good but very good... Nussbaum and Levmore are as interested in asking the right questions as they are with notching the right answers."--Dwight Garner, New York Times

"These paired essays really are a conversation - thoughtful, penetrating, and hopeful - between Nussbaum (one of our wisest, smartest writers) and economist and lawyer Levmore."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Nussbaum and Levmore provide important points for combating ageism while honoring the many changes that accompany aging. Aging Thoughtfully promises to provoke thoughtful discussion, especially among those at the cusp of older adulthood."--Christian Century

"Smart [and] provocative."--New Yorker

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0190600233
• ISBN 13: 9780190600235
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264