Dementia and the Boundaries of Secular Personhood

Authors

  • Nicholas Covaleski Graduate Program in Religion, Boston University, MA, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2021.65

Keywords:

dementia, secularism, bioethics, biopolitics

Abstract

For many, dementia disrupts basic ideas about what it means to be human, raising profound philosophical and theological questions on the nature of personhood. In this article I ask what dementia might reveal about personhood in a “secular age.” I suggest that the ill-fitting relationship between Western bioethics, with its emphasis on autonomy, and dementia throws into relief the boundaries of a secular self, and I tease out the ethical implications of the limits of those boundaries by highlighting a biopolitics of secularism. Lastly, I offer a theological account of dementia that situates dependence as a central feature of the human condition, and enriches a secular biomedical understanding of this neurocognitive disorder.

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Published

2021-11-29

How to Cite

Covaleski, N. (2021). Dementia and the Boundaries of Secular Personhood. Philosophy of Medicine, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2021.65

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Perspectives

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