Such is the question, very impertinent, not to say unpleasant, that Rousseau already posed in his
Discourse on the origin of inequality among men
.
In fact, in the face of old age, two conceptions of wisdom are still radically opposed today.
The first comes to us from the ancients, in particular from Stoicism and Buddhism, which invite us to resign ourselves to the natural order of things.
This is what Cicero explains in a short dialogue on old age (
De Senectute
) that I have already had the opportunity to mention here, a libel that one might believe as in advance written against the project transhumanist to "cure" old age.
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As he has Cato the Elder, his spokesperson in this dialogue, say, the good life is life in accordance with the natural order of the universe, and this order being as wise as immutable, the duration of our lives is of no importance: "
Why the hell, he asks, would old age be less painful for someone who lives eight...
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