Download 1. Introduction

Aging and the anthropology of dependency
Alfredo Marcos
Department of Philosophy / University of Valladolid (Spain)
[email protected]
1. Introduction
2. People and other animals in Peter Singer.
Consequences for dependent people
3. People and other animals in Alasdair MacIntyre.
Consequences for dependent people
4. Concluding remarks and new perspectives
1. Introduction
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An anthropology of the dependency could improve our
understanding of aging. Dependency occurs because our
animal and social nature
Some modern philosophers have defined human being
exclusively as a rational being, forgetting our animal part,
our vulnerability and dependency
Aristotelian tradition has always defined human being as a
rational and social animal (zoon logon politikon)
The Christian element added by Aquinas to the
Aristotelian tradition taught us the great value of the weak
and dependent person
Nowadays, some philosophers, like Singer and MacIntyre,
are bringing to the first plane the corporal nature of the
human being and our closeness to the rest of the animals,
but each one of them has reached completely different
conclusions regarding dependency
2. People and other animals in Peter Singer
Consequencies for dependent people
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Extended utilitarianism and hedonism
Anti-speciesism
The dilemma of the anti-speciesism: no
discrimination at all, or discrimination in
value between human beings
Singer justifies infanticide in some cases
and accept that different human lives have
different value. Dependent people seem to
be less valuable than autonomous people
3. People and other animals in Alasdair MacIntyre
Consequencies for dependent people
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Revisiting Aristotle’s and Aquinas’s Anthropology:
“Perhaps – writes MacIntyre - in order to consider
properly the phenomena of disability and dependency, it
would be necessary to begin with a new affirmation of our
animal condition”
A moral philosophy written from the perspective of the
dependent people (for all of us have been/are/will be
dependent people)
Virtues of autonomy and virtues of dependency
Equal dignity, unconditional care
Learning from dependent people
4. Concluding remarks and new perspectives
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Three (or four) ages of human life: an erroneous
theory
Three (or four) ages, but the same dignity
Third age and evolutionary theory
Anthropology (zoon logon politikon) and the
principles of bioethics:
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Rationality (logon) - Autonomy
Biological vulnerability (zoon) – Beneficence, nonmaleficence
Social dependency (politikon) - Justice