Age and Self-Knowledge Marianna Bergamaschi Ganapini

This paper proposes an analysis of some possible implications of aging focusing the effects that aging may have on one's self-knowledge. The goal of the paper is in fact to connect research on aging with different accounts of self-knowledge and put forward the following hypothesis: (i) in the late stages of our lives we adopt a different way of looking at ourselves, and (ii) there are three main factors likely causing this change: cognitive problems (episodic memory impairment), motivational factors (coherence-seeking), and loss of a forward-looking way of structuring our lives. In addition, (iii) all that makes confabulation a potentially serious problem during the aging process. Though not all aging adults go through these changes, I contend that the possibility of this shift in self-knowledge needs to be analyzed further.