GROWING BY DECREASING. A historical journey through the concept of old age (III)
- Lecture presented at the EHU (University of the Basque Country) Summer Courses, 2026 (continuation)
7. Contemporary philosopher and literature
a) Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Arthur Schopenhauer is considered one of the most brilliant philosophers of the nineteenth century and one of the most important figures in contemporary Western philosophy. His last work, unfinished and published posthumously, bears the title Senilia – Gedanken im Alter (Senilia, in Latin, means: “Things of Old Age”. Gedanken im Alter: “Thoughts in Old Age”), and it brings together notes, reflections and thoughts from the final years of his life. I reproduce some of these notes:
“What a fool it is to lament and complain that, in times past, one had the opportunity to obtain that happiness or that pleasure and let it slip away! What is gained now by remembering it? The dried-up mummy of a memory. This is really what happens with everything that has happened to us” (no. 41).
“When one manages to reach an advanced age, one still feels within oneself that one remains exactly the same as one was when young, even when a child: this remains unchanged, because the core of our essence often remains the same and does not grow old with time, since it is not in time and is therefore indestructible” (no. 128).
“Death completely appeases envy; old age only half of it” (no. 154).
“What a singular pleasure the contemplation of every free animal affords us when it goes about its business on its own, without being disturbed! When it pursues its food or cares for its young or draws close to one of its own kind, etc. In this way it shows all that it ought to be and can be. And even if it is only a little bird, I can contemplate it for a long time with delight; even a water rat, a frog; but better still a hedgehog, a weasel, a roe deer, a stag! The fact that the contemplation of animals comforts us so much has mainly to do with the fact that we are delighted to see our own essence before us in such a simplified form” (no. 176).
“Each day constitutes a little life. Every awakening and getting up is a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, and every going to bed and falling asleep a little death” (no. 292).
“That existence which remains untouched by the death of the individual has neither the form of time nor that of space; but for us, everything real nevertheless manifests itself in this form, and hence death also appears to us as annihilation” (no. 298).
“If one truly reflects, one will realize that everything that perishes was not in reality true” (no. 315).
b) Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, did not have an easy life: his childhood and youth were marked by family and religious conflicts; he suffered profound psychological and depressive crises, and he faced the political and social isolation resulting from his pacifist stance and his criticism of nationalism during the world wars. His work Mit der Reife wird man immer jünger. Betrachtungen und Gedichte über das Alter (With maturity, one grows ever younger. Reflections and poems on aging) is an excellent compendium of wisdom for living through old age.
It is possible, he tells us, to experience old age as an experience of breadth and fulfilment. This requires accepting it deeply for what it is: “Growing old is a natural process, and a man of sixty-five or seventy-five, if he does not try to be young, is perfectly healthy and just as normal as another man of thirty or fifty. But unfortunately, we are not always in agreement with our own age; often we hurry ourselves internally and, even more frequently, we lag behind… and then consciousness and the feeling of life are less mature than the body; we defend ourselves against its natural manifestations while demanding from it something that, by its very nature, it cannot provide. Anyone who has reached old age and pays attention to this fact can observe how, despite the weakening of strength and faculties, there is a later life which, each year until the end, broadens and multiplies the infinite network of its relationships and connections, and how, as long as memory remains awake, nothing of all that is transitory and past has been lost” (pp. 37–38).
Explicit references to God are rare in Hesse. He does so in this magnificent passage: “… through the image of a landscape, a tree, a human story or a flower, God reveals himself to us and offers us the meaning and value of all beings and events. And, in fact, it is probable that in our younger years we experience with enthusiasm and passion the contemplation of a flowering tree, the formation of clouds, so that the experience to which I am referring requires precisely an infinite accumulation of things seen, experienced, thought, felt and suffered; it requires a certain attenuation of vital impulses, a certain decline and proximity to death, in order to perceive, in a small revelation of nature, God, the spirit, the mystery, the harmony of opposites and the Great One. Young people can undoubtedly experience it too, but less frequently and without that unity of sensation and thought, of sensory and spiritual experience, of stimulus and consciousness” (pp. 40–41).
The secret, he teaches, consists in “coming to terms with old age”, in loving it as it is, and in aspiring to nothing that old age cannot offer us. He writes: “An old man who hates and fears old age, who hates his white hair and the proximity of death, is not a worthy representative of the stage of life in which he finds himself, just as a young and vigorous man who hates his vocation and daily work and seeks to escape from them is not either. In brief: in order to fulfil his destiny as an old man and rise to the demands of his task, one must come to terms with old age and with everything it entails; one must say yes to it. Without that yes, without surrendering to all that nature asks of us, we lose the value and meaning of our days — whether we are old or young — and we cheat life” (p. 47).
In short: we must say yes to old age in order to rise to its demands.
c) Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Author of short stories, poet, essayist and translator, he is considered by many to be a key figure in Spanish-language literature and in world literature. I will quote only his poem “Elogio de la sombra” (In Praise of Darkness), about old age, which begins as follows:
“Old age (that is the name the others give it)
may be the time of our happiness.
…
There were always too many things in my life;
Demoritus of Abdera tore out his eyes in order to think;
time has been my Democritus.
This half-light is slow and does not hurt;
it flows down a gentle slope
and resembles eternity.”
And it ends as follows:
“Now I can forget them. I arrive at my centre,
at my algebra and my key,
at my mirror.
Soon I shall know who I am.”
d) Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
Philosopher, professor, writer, feminist activist, and author of novels, biographies and essays, Simone de Beauvoir published La Vieillesse (Old Age, or The Comingo of Age) in 1970, a 700-page interdisciplinary work and one of the most comprehensive and widely recognized reflections on the subject.
One of the principal merits of this monumental work is that it introduces two critical perspectives that had previously been ignored: the perspective of gender and the cultural and sociopolitical perspective in general. On the one hand, she denounces the social discrimination, inhumane treatment and complicit silence to which old people in general were subjected sixty years ago and to which they are still largely subjected today. On the other hand, she denounces ageism, or the negative stereotypes applied above all to older women.
These are some of her fundamental theses: 1) “Nothing should be more expected than old age. Yet nothing is more unexpected”; 2) “The misfortune of old people is a sign of the failure of contemporary civilization”; 3) “To deny old age is to deny ourselves.”
As regards the cultural and social ageism of which older women in particular continue to be victims, this paragraph from the book is sufficient as an illustration: “Neither in literature nor in life have I encountered a woman who regarded her old age with complacency. Nor does one ever speak of a ‘beautiful old woman’; at best, she is described as ‘charming’. By contrast, certain ‘handsome old men’ are admired; a man is not prey; he is not required to possess freshness, sweetness or grace, but only the strength and intelligence of the conquering subject; white hair and wrinkles do not contradict that masculine ideal” (Simone de Beauvoir, La vejez, Ed. Sudamericana, Bogotá, 1970, p. 207).
Simone de Beauvoir closes the pages of Old Age by anticipating her time and setting out a task: “Once one has understood what the condition of old people is, it is not possible to be satisfied with demanding a more generous ‘policy for old age’, an increase in pensions, decent housing, or organized leisure activities. It is the whole system that is at stake, and the demand can only be radical: to change life.”
To bring this historical journey to a close, in the following two sections I will turn to the tradition that is culturally closest to us, the one that has marked us most deeply, with both its light and its shadow: the Jewish and Christian biblical tradition.
José Arregi, Aizarna, 29 July 2026
(to be continued)