The aging process in the formation of wersten wolrd: an analysis of cultural interlacements

Abstract

The cultural formation in each time is raw material for social comprehension, although the remote origin of fonts is permeated by a pragmatic imprecision. In this text, with a bibliographic review of a qualitative approach, we aim to understand the process of aging, through the examination of some of the main Works of the so called “Ancient Time”, which encompasses the Graeco-Latin antiquity, the Jewish tradition and, finally, the interlacement of these two components in Middle Ages, considering St. Augustine and St Thomas of Aquinas. As a process, the old age can be examined from a rational and transcendent point of view. The focus of the investigation is in the mains Works of each period with emphasis on the perception of old age by authors – books by Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca in Graeco-Latin Antiquity; the Bible in Judaeo-Christian Tradition; the works of St. Augustine and St Thomas of Aquinas in Middle Ages. Evidently, exhausting all possibilities of historical approaches is not the intention, as each period has other nuances and temporal divisions. However, it is possible to foster reflections about the way of life of the elderly, with particular elements since the formation of Western World, locating them it in a perspective that considers the plurality of assimilations, and also as an active subject in cultural interlacements.