Jesse F. Ballenger

How We Think (Deeply but with Limits) about Quality of Life

All human beings age, and it seems intuitive to claim that they wish to do so wisely and with a high quality of life. Yet, wisdom and quality of life are problematic concepts. Despite attempts to develop some objective, quantifiable measures, both concepts have an ineluctably subjective element. But however difficult it is to deal with these concepts with scientific precision, they are nonetheless essential to human beings of all ages and, over the past decade, there have been renewed attempts in various fields to bring them into scientific and scholarly discourse. Quality of life has emerged as a major topic in gerontology, only recently, though integrating the concept into clinical practice and public policy has been challenging. Wisdom has been in decline in academics for decades, though works have appeared over the last decade in psychology, (Sternberg 1990) philosophy, (Lehrer 1996) and management (Srivastva and Cooperrider 1998) calling for a renewal of wisdom as a central concept. This paper examines the complex relationship between aging, wisdom, and quality of life, offering a framework for an integrative model. Suffering and loss, which can threaten quality of life in old age, can also be essential for the development of wisdom. Wisdom in turn may be the foundation for experiencing a renewed quality of life as we age.