On Age

Age is determined by the amount of time that someone or something has existed. For example, a person born in 1980 and a 1980 vintage wine would each be 40 years old in 2020. Recently, Joona Räsänen has challenged this belief, arguing that in some cases one’s age is not determined by how long one has...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Simkulet, William (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2024
In: De Ethica
Year: 2024, Volume: 8, Issue: 2, Pages: 33-43
Further subjects:B Ethics
B Makropulos Case
B Rip Van Winkle
B Aging
B Metaphorical Fallacy
B Age
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Age is determined by the amount of time that someone or something has existed. For example, a person born in 1980 and a 1980 vintage wine would each be 40 years old in 2020. Recently, Joona Räsänen has challenged this belief, arguing that in some cases one’s age is not determined by how long one has existed, but by some feature or set of features about one's biology, experiences, and/or beliefs about themselves. In many cases, age is an ad hoc indicator of physical health, psychological development, and the like, but for Räsänen, it seems age isn't merely an indicator of such things; it's derived from these things! Here I argue Räsänen's alternatives to chronological age are ontologically burdensome and inconsistent with our intuitions in both normal and weird cases.
ISSN:2001-8819
Contains:Enthalten in: De Ethica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3384/de-ethica.2001-8819.248233