Bringing the Phenomenon of Being Aged into the Light

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Chapter Three:The Philosophical Underpinnings

Way and weighing
Stile and saying
On a single walk are found.
Go bear without halt
Question and default
On your single pathway bound
(Heidegger, 1971/2001, p. 3).
What lies behind, in front, under and over my pathway through this study is brought to the fore in this chapter. I show the ‗weighing;‘ what was pondered and carefully considered in finding my way. I point out the ‗stiles;‘ the things which enabled me to cross from the thinking to a research methodology. And I reveal how questioning uncovered the path itself.
The origins of Gadamerian hermeneutics and Heideggerian phenomenology are introduced as providing the philosophical milieu. I illustrate how these philosophical understandings were brought into play in guiding the research approach. Rather than being in a linear and stepwise movement, being on the research pathway was a dynamic motion. It was a moving to and from the philosophies and back again. It was a stepping off the path and finding my way back again. Hence, the philosophical underpinnings are just that. They provide a template of understandings, rather than being a research methodology as such. The way forward was thoughtful and reflective. All was not laid out bare, there in front of me, at the beginning of my research journey. The way emerged throughout the whole of the study.

The Nature of the Inquiry

Exploring how elders experience aging in their everyday lives was a mode of philosophical reflectiveness. While the research question is of contemporary interest, the philosophical thinking reaches back to ancient Greece. Being engaged in this mode of inquiry meant the past was before me. The past showed me how I might proceed next. Firstly, hermeneutics is introduced as the broad philosophical horizon for my inquiry. Hermeneutics helped guide the ‗how‘ of this study.

The Dialectical Conversation

Recognised as one of the great Athenian philosophers, Socrates [before 469—399 B.C.] held that ―virtue was knowledge, and knowledge was to be elicited by the dialectical technique….His aim was to act as a midwife to those in labour for knowledge‖ (Thorne & Collocott, 1974, p. 1193). Accordingly, in conversation with his followers, Socrates would feign total ignorance on a matter and ask simple questions. His dialectical approach was one of artful conversation. Through the questioning and questioning further, thinking was clarified and gaps in thinking were uncovered (Gadamer, 2004). In this way, Socrates opened up the conversational space. He allowed confusion to show. Yet, paradoxically, in the confusion came clarification ―for it opens one‘s eyes to the thing‖ (Gadamer, p. 460).
The art of dialectic was further developed by Plato [427—347 B.C.], one of Socrates‘ disciples. True knowledge, Plato believed, was in apprehending the universal nature of things (Thorne & Collocott, 1974). Universal forms exist in their timelessness; they are time-honoured. Yet in spite of their constancy they can exist in different ways. This contemplation of the relationship between the enduring forms of a thing and particular instances of it became a cornerstone of Plato‘s thinking (Thorne & Collocott). Hence, his art of dialectical conversation showed an interpretive movement between the thing in its wholeness, the universal form, and its parts, the particular occurrences of it. This interpretive movement was a way of coming to a ‗truth‘ in understanding.
Seeking understanding through the dialectical conversation is, therefore, an open engagement in raising questions and exploring answers. While for Socrates and Plato the conversation occurred between scholar and disciples, their way laid the path for a dialectic engagement with the written word. Their thinking paved the way for hermeneutics to emerge as the interpretation of texts (Gadamer, 2004).
My pathway through this project has been one of learning to question and questioning yet further. I sought to use questioning as a way of remaining open to possibilities of understanding. To illustrate, I raised questions of what I already knew about being aged and questions of the philosophies themselves. This guided my drafting ‗what‘ I might ask participants and ‗how‘ I might engage in conversation with them. This questioning was in the mode of not-knowing; of being open to what might be there to hear. Then, during the flow of conversation with participants, the discussion often caused me to question the things I was asking. And I worked to question what the participant‘s spoke of rather than leaping ahead, thinking I already knew. At times I became confused and asked further questions to reveal more of what perplexed me. I tried to be my own ‗midwife‘ as I laboured for understanding about the ontology of being aged.

The Art of Textual Interpretation

Hermes in Greek mythology was the herald of the Olympian gods, carrying messages and secrets from the gods to the people on earth. He put ―into words those mysteries which were beyond the capacity of human utterance‖ (Jasper, 2004, p. 7). Appropriately, Hermes‘ name is used in formulating words which symbolise the illumination and understanding of messages. Thus the Greek word hermeneia means an interpreting or revealing that which was previously hidden (Inwood, 1999). And the word hermeneutik came to mean, not the interpretation itself but, the ―study of interpretation‖ (Inwood, p. 87). Meanings which are self-evident in a text, therefore, do not call for a hermeneutic engagement. That is, only when a text is saying something which needs to be interpreted and assimilated does hermeneutics find its place (Gadamer, 2004). Historically, the biblical Scriptures provided a rich medium for the art of hermeneutics to flourish.
Prior to Heidegger‘s seminal work on interpretive phenomenology, two philosophers stand out in the history of contemporary hermeneutics; Frederick Schleiermacher [1768—1834] and Wilhelm Dilthey [1833—1911] (Gadamer, 2004). Schleiermacher is ―recognised as the father of modern hermeneutics‖ (Jasper, 2004, p. 21). He was a German philosopher and theologian who rejected narrow dogmatism and aligned himself with Romaniticism (Thorne & Collocott, 1974). He systemised the art of interpreting the Scriptures. Following on from his work, Dilthey, also a German philosopher, focused on articulating the structures behind human thought, mental life and lived experience (Thorne & Collocott). Dilthey is acknowledged for bringing hermeneutics into the study of methods within the sciences such as philology, the science of language, theology and history (Inwood, 1999).
Heidegger then followed Dilthey‘s tradition in moving hermeneutics away from solely studying the scriptures toward a generalised way of studying human engagement (Dreyfus, 1991). Furthermore, Dreyfus credits Heidegger with bringing hermeneutics through into contemporary philosophy. This he did by way of his expansive uncovering and interpretation of the essential nature of being. In doing so, the pathway and conditions for conducting any hermeneutic ontological inquiry were set down (Inwood, 1999).

Bringing Notions into Language

Hermeneutics is, above all, concerned with understanding texts. In the context of this study the participants‘ stories are ‗like Hermes.‘ The stories are the herald. They bear messages within them. Hence, through the research conversations the storied text was delivered to me for interpretation. Hermes was also the god of literature and a patron of poetry (Hermes, n.d.). Thus, the philosophical foundations open the way for me to consider diverse forms of literature, including novels and poetry, in coming to understand the meaning of being aged.

Chapter One: The Journey Begins
Moving Toward the Study
What Drew me to this Study
Why the Study Matters
Being Aged in Context
Being Aged in the Population
Being Aged in Social Policy
Being Aged in the Research Community
Seeing the Place for this Study
Unveiling the Meaning of Being Aged
The Meanings in Language
The Meanings in Science
A Map of the Textual Journey
Chapter Two: Listening for Meanings in Language
Surveying the Horizon
Listening for the Metaphors
Being Aged as Lived Experience
Being Aged as Appearance
Being Aged as a Social Category
Being Aged as Being Wise
Being Aged as Decrepitude
Being Aged as Being Explained
Activity Theory
Theory of Selective Optimization with Compensation
Gerotranscendence
Across the Theoretical Divide
A Reflection
Chapter Three: The Philosophical Underpinnings 
The Nature of the Inquiry
The Dialectical Conversation
The Art of Textual Interpretation
Bringing Notions into Language
To the Thing Itself
Illuminating the Core Heideggerian Notions
Dasein
Being-in-the-world
Essence
In the Showing
A Science of Phenomena
A Hermeneutic Phenomenology
How is Understanding Possible?
Illuminating the ‗Historicity‘ of Understanding
Apprehending Horizons of Understanding .
Being in the Hermeneutic Circle
Being Open to Not Knowing
Going Beyond the Words
Being Always on the Way
Heidegger‘s History and its Implications
The Situation
Is ‗Being and Time‘ Politically Informed?
Could My Study be Discredited?
A Reflection
Chapter Four: Being on the Way
Ethics Approval
Identifying Potential Participants
Recruiting Elders for the Study
Non-Maori Participants
Maori Participants
Profile of Participants
Gathering the Text
Guiding the Conversation
Being the Visitor
Managing the Event
Capturing the Anecdotic
Capturing the Visual Text
To the Thinking
Being in Conversation with the Anecdotes
Being in the Hermeneutic Circle
Interpreting the Maori Elders‘ Text
Knowing When it was Time
Bringing the Phenomenon of Being Aged into the Light
Evaluating the Trustworthiness
Coherence
Lived-Throughness
Cogency
Evoked Understanding
Uncertainty
Applicability
Unveiling My Understandings
A Reflection
Chapter Five: The Being of Being Aged 
The Hands
Madge, 95
Margaret, 80
Frank, 97
Clark, 89
Christina, 93
Curly, 97
Ferguson, 97
Tom, 91
Merrill, 89
Mary, 91
Florence, 90
Matelot, 74
Ella, 93
Pani, 71
May, 77
Into the Great Oneness
A Reflection
Chapter Six: Being in the Everyday 
Philosophical Underpinnings
Having a Routine
Having Something to Do
Having the Past in the Present
Being Situated in the Everyday
Having a Purpose
A Reflection
Chapter Seven: Being with Others 
Philosophical Underpinnings
Being-with as Belonging
Being-with as Elder
Being-with as Carer
Being-with as Being-alone
Being-with as Remembering
Being Left Behind
Being-with God
A Reflection
Chapter Eight: Experiencing the Unaccustomed
Philosophical Underpinnings
Being on Show
Being Alarmed
Fearing the Merely Possible
Being Forgetful
Being Tired
Being Weaker
Being ‗Old‘
A Reflection
Chapter Nine: Aging Just Is
Philosophical Underpinnings
Letting It Be
Taking Account of Aging
Being Aged not Old
A Reflection .
Chapter Ten: The Meaning of Being Aged
The Deep Soil
The Ordinary
The Ordinariness of Being Aged
Being in Ordinariness
Irruptions to Ordinariness
The New Understandings Illuminated
Limitations of the Study
Strengths of the Study
Considering the Implications for Practice
Considering the Implications for Education
Considering the Implications for Further Research
At the End of the Day
What Stands Out as Mattering?
Appendices
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‘Being Aged’in the Everyday: Uncovering the meaning through elders’stories