The article raises the problem of determining the old age boundaries foregrounding its conditions and challenges of the modern world, primarily the trends of demographic aging and the accompanying requirements of socio-economic, cultural and political nature. The aim of the paper is to review and compare the philosophical, socio-psychological, economic and political approaches to the determining of the old age threshold as a search for a single interpretation. The author shows that the problem discussed is characterized by a particular methodological depth. Thus, the very characteristic of “old” is defined in terms of logic as a predicate with fuzzy boundaries, which gives rise to problems of categorization and classification, defined in general as the “Sorites paradox”. Despite the existence of a number of theoretical schemes claiming to solve this philosophical riddle, none of them is recognized as exhaustive. The author comes to the conclusion that the pragmatic conceptualization of the Sorites paradox is appropriate in the context of the problems under consideration, namely, the development of adequate demographic and social policies, programming and ensuring the parameters of a prosperous old age. Although it does not provide prescriptions regarding the boundaries of old age, it provides a valuable descriptive language that allows explaining why certain solutions to the problem of old age periodization have been recognized as true in different periods of humanity. The choice of a particular periodization scheme depends to a large extent on the scope of its application and the objectives set, and therefore should be the result of a comparative analysis of possible alternatives with the involvement of scientific arguments and taking into account political circumstances, which are not always consonant with each other, as the author notes. The practical significance of the results lies in the identification of limitations for the use of certain approaches to the interpretation of the old age threshold in relation to the implementation of state social programs, including social assistance and pension systems
Keywords
old age threshold, old, age, sorites paradox, life cycle theory, old age dependency ratio, retirement age, political process