Monday Event: 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm UK
“Illness, Ageing, Death, and All That”
Drew Leder and Kevin Aho in conversation with Anthony Morgan
As we grapple with the impacts of an aging population, the millions who struggle with chronic pain and illness, and the unknown number of COVID survivors dealing with long-term impairment, our individual and collective trust in our bodies is shaken. How to adapt? And how to live well, even when medical cure is unavailable?
As both a philosopher and medical doctor, Drew Leder has been writing on embodiment for the past thirty years, and the publication of The Healing Body: Creative Responses to Illness, Aging, and Affliction last year completes an influential trilogy of books that started with The Absent Body back in 1990. As keen athlete in his late forties, philosopher Kevin Aho hadn’t given much thought to his own mortality until he suffered a sudden heart attack that left him fighting for his life. Confronted with death for the first time, he realized that the things he thought gave his life meaning, such as his independence or his ability to plan his own future, were in tatters. Through writing One Beat More: Existentialism and the Gift of Mortality, Aho found new meaning and comfort in a view of life that strives for authenticity and accepts aging and death as part of what makes life worthwhile. You can find out more and register here.