Old age

"Soleil" Collection. 265th in the collection.

"Old Age" is an essay by Simone de Beauvoir published on January 23, 1970 by Gallimard.

Summary: Using numerous examples, she addresses the concrete nature of the political, social, existential, philosophical, and psychological problems of aging and death in ancient, primitive, and modern societies in France and other Western countries. The essay is divided into two parts. The first corresponds to a committed "political" vision of old age in primitive societies, and in Western societies from their Platonic and Jewish origins to modern examples. In this first part, she demonstrates that modern societies behave just as "degradingly" as some primitive societies. The elderly are useless mouths to feed. In this, she is a precursor to the political struggle of older people to have their rights recognized in a world that excludes the elderly. In a second part, through literary and historical examples (Georges Clemenceau, Philippe Pétain, Gandhi...), field surveys, and visits to the Salpêtrière Hospital hospice, she defines what, for her, can give meaning in the absurdity of a merciless world for the very old. Engagement in the service of others through projects and political struggles gives even the very old objectives that make sense for the person herself, for her environment, for society, with the reformist example of John XXIII convening the Second Vatican Council being an example of political courage."

LIMITED EDITION of 5100 numbered copies on Calypso bulky alpha paper from Libert paper mills. This is one of those copies.