Abstract

Derkx defines humanism as a “meaning frame”—i.e., cultural coding serving to map out movement toward a positive identity and a stable existence—by means of which life is given value and significance. Meaningful life has something to do with healthy relationships that nurture and provide a way to address the nature of existence through a balance between what one is and what one does. This, of course, assumes the ability to develop arrangements that presume the basic goodness of humanity as the ability to distinguish “negative freedom” and “positive freedom,” and act accordingly. Mindful of this general discussion, this chapter explores Derkx’s thinking on meaningful life in relationship to current struggles for social justice and raises a question: What does it mean to seek practices of aging well as a primary humanist value? What are the consequences for aging well when humans are positioned within a context of racial and gender violence? The chapter concludes that, while Derkx rightly calls for addressing injustice as part of his work on life meaning, there are gaps in his aging-well logic based on certain optimistic assumptions concerning the human’s ability to transform social arrangements.