Consciousness, subjectivity, and aging in western thought

Abstract

A persisting debate exists on whether physical processes can fully account for the personal experience of reality or whether subjectivity transcends physical processes. However, scientists and philosophers agree that the subjective experience is influenced by information received from the body and the environment, modulated by emotions, concepts, skills, and memories acquired throughout life. Aging compromises aspects of cognition. However, many older adults develop emotion regulation strategies, experience their environment with a positivity bias, and use earlier successful predictive models of reality to compensate. Life events, personalized integration of perspectives of others, and an ever-changing social context, accelerated by the digital revolution, influence the older person’s experience. Loss of loved ones, disability, pain, sensory compromise, the ravages of terminal illness, and the realization of approaching death become part of the older person’s lifeworld. These experiences are integrated into a personal narrative through which older adults interpret reality and satisfy the fundamental need for creating meaning out of one’s life. As we learn about the subjective experience of older adults, we can advance an agenda of research and advocacy that promotes their mental health, increases their participation in social processes, and enables them to contribute to the transgenerational continuity of society to everybody’s benefit.