Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on the humanities Patricia Meyer Spacks, Steven Marcus, Andrew Delbanco, Pauline Yu, Gerald Early, Anthony Grafton, Thomas Crow, Jack Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Balkin & Sanford Levinson, and Dag½nn Follesdal & Michael L. Friedman Winter 2006 on body in mind Antonio & Hanna Damasio, Jerry Fodor, Carol Gilligan, Gerald Winter 2006: on aging Edelman, Jorie Graham, Raymond Dolan, Arne Öhman, Mark on Chris Wilson The century ahead 5 aging Johnson, Jacques d’Amboise, and William E. Connolly Henry J. Aaron Longer life spans: boon or burden? 9 Sarah Harper Mature societies 20 on identity Akeel Bilgrami, Wendy Doniger, Amartya Sen, Stephen Greenblatt, Paul B. Baltes Human dignity & the limits of life 32 Kwame Anthony Appiah, Sydney Shoemaker, Joseph Koerner, Susan Green½eld, David A. Hollinger, Claudio Lomnitz, Carol Linda Partridge Of worms, mice & men 40 Rovane, Todd E. Feinberg, Ian Hacking, and Courtney Jung Hillard Kaplan The life course of a foraging species 48 Dennis J. Selkoe Deciphering Alzheimer’s disease 58 on nonviolence William H. McNeill, Adam Michnik, Jonathan Schell, James Carroll, Caleb E. Finch Aging, inflammation & the body electric 68 & violence Breyten Breytenbach, Mark Juergensmeyer, Steven LeBlanc, James Kenneth Clark The artist grows old 77 Blight, Cindy Ness, Neil L. Whitehead, and Mia Bloom Jagadeesh Gokhale & Kent Smetters Social Security & the aging of America 91 on sex Joan Roughgarden, Terry Castle, Steven Marcus, Claudia Goldin, Lisa F. Berkman Brian Charlesworth, Elizabeth Benedict, Wendy Doniger, Lawrence & M. Maria Glymour How society shapes life spans 105 Cohen, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Catharine MacKinnon, Tim Birkhead, and Margo Jefferson poetry Charles Wright Last Supper 115 on capitalism Joyce Appleby, John C. Bogle, Lucian Bebchuk, Robert W. Fogel, ½ction Ree Davis I kneel before you 116 & democracy Jerry Z. Muller, Peter Bernstein, Richard Epstein, Benjamin M. Friedman, John Dunn, and Robin Blackburn dialogue Daniel Bell & Wolf Lepenies on society & sociology past & present 120 on life Anthony Kenny, Thomas Laqueur, Shai Lavi, Lorraine Daston, Paul Rabinow, Michael S. Gazzaniga, Robert George, Robert J. Richards, notes Jeri Laber on torture 124 and others Robert F. Nagel on the decline of federalism 127 plus poetry by Peg Boyers, Kevin Carrizo di Camillo, John Kinsella, letters on compromised work, poetry for nonpoets &c. 131 Charles Simic, Lawrence Dugan &c.; ½ction by Adam Braver, Dorian Gossy &c.; and notes by Michael Cook, Norbert Schwarz, Joel F. Handler, William B. Quandt, William Galston, Richard Morris, Robert J. Sharer &c. U.S. $13; www.amacad.org FOUNDED 1780 Inside front cover: A picture of progressive de- mentia, using a silver-stained section of the amygdala of the brain from a sixty-nine-year-old man with a nine-year history of the disease. In this image, darkly stained neuro½brillary tangles occupy much of the cytoplasm of selected pyra- midal neurons, in contrast to the golden brown cytoplasm of numerous adjacent cytologically normal neurons. In the center, a senile plaque, consisting of a large compacted deposit of extra- cellular amyloid, is intimately surrounded by a halo of dilated, structurally abnormal (dystro- phic) neurites–represented by the squiggly dark brown pro½les. See Dennis J. Selkoe on The aging mind: deciphering Alzheimer’s disease & its antecedents, pages 58–67: “The process of brain aging can contribute to the development of a clinically noticeable dementing illness, but aging by itself appears to be insuf½cient to cause the illness.” Image courtesy of Dennis J. Selkoe. James Miller, Editor of Dædalus Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications Esther Yoo, Assistant Editor Contributing Editors: Robert S. Boynton, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Pesic, Danny Postel Board of editors Steven Marcus, Editor of the Academy Russell Banks, Fiction Adviser Rosanna Warren, Poetry Adviser Joyce Appleby (u.s. history, ucla), Stanley Hoffmann (government, Harvard), Donald Kennedy (environmental science, Stanford), Martha C. Nussbaum (law and philosophy, Chicago), Neil J. Smelser (sociology, Berkeley), Steven Weinberg (physics, University of Texas at Austin); ex of½cio: Patricia Meyer Spacks (President of the Academy), Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (Chief Executive Of½cer) Editorial advisers Daniel Bell (sociology, Harvard), Michael Boudin (law, u.s. Court of Appeals), Wendy Doniger (religion, Chicago), Howard Gardner (education, Harvard), Clifford Geertz (anthropology, Institute for Advanced Study), Carol Gluck (Asian history, Columbia), Stephen Greenblatt (English, Harvard), Thomas Laqueur (European history, Berkeley), Alan Lightman (English and physics, mit), Steven Pinker (psychology, Harvard), Diane Ravitch (education, nyu), Amartya Sen (economics, Harvard), Richard Shweder (human development, Chicago), Frank Wilczek (physics, mit) Announcement Correction: In the Fall 2005 issue, “50 years,” acknowledgment should have been made of Stephen R. Graubard, the editor who assigned and edited all but one of the essays that were reprinted in that issue. Dædalus is designed by Alvin Eisenman Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences The labyrinth designed by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete, on a silver tetradrachma from Cnossos, Crete, c. 350–300 b.c. (35 mm, Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque National, Paris). “Such was the work, so intricate the place, / That scarce the workman all its turns cou’d trace; / And Daedalus was puzzled how to ½nd / The secret ways of what himself design’d.”–Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 8 Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every ½eld of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its more than four thousand elected members, continues to provide intellectual leadership to meet the critical challenges facing our world. Dædalus Winter 2006 Subscription rates: Electronic only for non- Issued as Volume 135, Number 1 member individuals–$38; institutions–$86. Canadians add 7% gst. Print and electronic © 2006 by the American Academy for nonmember individuals–$42; institu- of Arts & Sciences tions–$96. Canadians add 7% gst. Outside The artist grows old the United States and Canada add $20 for © 1972 by Cambridge University Press postage and handling. Prices subject to change Measuring Social Security’s ½nancial outlook without notice. within an aging society © 2006 by Jagadeesh Gokhale Institutional subscriptions are on a volume- & Kent Smetters year basis. All other subscriptions begin with Last Supper the next available issue. © 2006 by Charles Wright Single issues: current issues–$13; back issues I kneel before you for individuals–$13; back issues for institu- © 2006 by Ree Davis tions–$26. Outside the United States and On society & sociology past & present Canada add $5 per issue for postage and han- © 2006 by Wolf Lepenies dling. Prices subject to change without notice. Editorial of½ces: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, Claims for missing issues will be honored free 136 Irving Street, Cambridge ma 02138. of charge if made within three months of the Phone: 617 491 2600. Fax: 617 576 5088. publication date of the issue. Claims may be Email: [email protected]. submitted to [email protected]. 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