RG 5022: Medicine and the temporal structure of the good life

The Research Group 5022 focuses on interrelations between medicine and the time structure of a good life. Combining philosophical and applied-ethical perspectives with empirical social research and cultural analyses, we investigate the significance of medical possibilities for the temporal structure of a good life and vice versa. The focus lies on three fields of medical practice: (1) the problematization of biographical phases and trajectories in the treatment of chronic heart disease in early and middle adulthood, (2) efforts of temporal planning, control and optimization in middle age in the context of reproductive medicine and (3) the (re-)negotiation of aging in healthcare for older people. The research of the eight subprojects of the first funding period made clear that an in-depth analysis of the interrelations between medicine and the time structure of a good life requires a more systematic consideration of aspects and contexts that transcend individual lifetime. Particularly important are references to transindividual and especially intergenerational dimensions that are usually discussed in terms of generativity. Thus, the focus shifts to the question of how individual happiness and meaning in life in the context of medicine are connected to generative perspectives: What role do such generative perspectives play for a good life in light of medical possibilities, and what implications do medical possibilities have for generativity as an element of a good life? From a theoretical and methodological point of view, the closer examination of these questions requires a more systematic consideration of narrative forms of shaping and mediating individual and transindividual temporal structures. From this expanded research perspective, we can investigate what role notions of generative gift and transfer play for the good life of male and female patients of varied ages with chronic heart disease, and how these notions can be taken into account in quality of life measurements (SP-C). Furthermore, we can analyze with regard to infertility, pregnancy loss and abortion what an accidental or even deliberate disruption of generativity means for a good life (SP-D). In view of healthcare for older people, we can explore how the generative connection of the finite individual lifespan to overarching societal and intergene¬rational structures shapes views of good life and medical treatment at old age (SP-E and SP-F). In all three contexts, analyses of the relations and tensions between individual narrations and societal narratives conveyed by media deserve particular attention (SP-B). In addition, the expansion of our research interest is framed by a fundamental philosophical analysis of the significance of transindividual time structures for a good life (SP-A). The CIP finally offers a synopsis and reflection of the outcomes of both funding periods with regard to biographical and generative (dis-)continuity and the good life.