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Articles

Et In Arcadia Ego

Vaitsa Giannouli asks philosophical questions about dementia and responsibility.

During the last five years, as I examined numerous older people with different forms and stages of cognitive deficits ranging from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer’s dementia, a plethora of thought-provoking philosophical questions arose. I believe that questions are more important than answers (“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers”: Voltaire), and like Richard Feynman “I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.” Therefore I want to draw your attention to some important but widely ignored philosophical questions relating to dementia. I’ll be quoting many thinkers but “I quote others only in order to better express myself” (Montaigne). In order to be a free thinker and not accept everything I hear, I need to be critical and prepared to evaluate everything I believe.

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