Leader: Francesca De Vecchi (UniSR); Other collaborator(s): Francesca Forle (UNISR)
A qualitative social ontology - intrinsically connected with an ontology of the person and focused on the relation between the personal and the social- suggests dealing with the intergenerational relation in terms of whole-parts. Different generations are parts existentially depending on one other, and, together, they constitute a whole that is the subjective pole of our common and socio-institutional world across the time. Under this perspective, legal provisions must consider as their addressee the transgenerational whole, even though they must distinguish different roles, and relative rights and obligations in different times, for each of the generations involved.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
November 2023 – March 2024
During the relevant period, we have worked on the topic of personal identity and its possible modifications at older age. On the one hand we have worked on the topics of transgenerationality and vulnerability in older people affected by dementia. On the other hand we have worked on a phenomenological account of sentiments and existential feelings to investigate how the mentioned affective phenomena can become prominent at older age and can have effects on the personal transformation that older age implies. The investigated hypothesis is that older age is usually characterized by modifications in one’s existential feelings. Since the latter are background feelings able to shape other subjective experiences, we consider whether specific sentiments and emotions at older age can be explained on the basis of existential feelings’ modifications. On this background, we investigated whether specific forms of vulnerability can be implied by such existential modifications and we developed the thesis that laws and normative treatment can have a crucial role in mitigating a possible sense of estrangement in older people and in facilitating an experience of familiarity with the normative world. This research has led to an abstract to be presented at the X Conference of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions (Lisbon, June 19th-21st 2024) and a paper to be presented at the Age-it General Meeting (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, May 20-22, 2024).
Moreover, we have worked at a paper on “Fenomenologia del corpo vissuto e identità personale di genere” that has been presented at the IV Conference of SWIP Italia “Genere e Biologia: dal corpo al contesto”, Turin, November 9th – 10th 2023. Such a paper gives the theoretical background for further investigation on gender identity in older people.
Finally, we have contributed to a position paper on the legal aspects of intergenerational justice between different age groups.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications:
Coming soon
Francesca De Vecchi and Francesca Forlè have organized and attended two events related to the present project. The first is “Exploring Personal Identity. Philosophical Perspectives and Insights from Arts” (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, October 2-4 2024), which has explored the topic of personal identity also in connection to older age (cfr. the keynote presentation by Sara Heinämaa on “Transformations of Aging: An Existential-Phenomenological Account”).
The second is the workshop “Invecchiamento, demenza, vulnerabilità: una prospettiva di ricerca interdisciplinare” at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (November 28-29, 2024).
Francesca Forlè has finalized the paper “Becoming new in old age. Bodily experience and personal flourishing” that has been accepted for publication on a special issue of the journal Rivista di Estetica.
Francesca De Vecchi and Francesca Forlè, together with Roberta Sala, have started to work at the paper “Vulnerability and existential feelings of ageing: personal traits and public implications”, to be submitted to an international journal such as Journal of Social Ontology, The European Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Studies.
Moreover, they have worked on the concept of “therapeutic atmosphere” as a crucial one to improve older people’s experience of medical therapies. The preliminary hypothesis of this research has been the object of an abstract submitted to the EPSSE conference 2025.
Coming soon