older people, technology and cortesia

Older People, Technologies,

EMILIO MORDINI - CSSC

VALUE AGEING SEMINAR

BELFAST , 20 MARCH 2012

Older People, Technologies, and “Cortesia”

The Human Right Sublime Architecture

Little, humble, grain of sand

� Life is made by small things, bricks that day by day create the architecture of one’s life.

� Quality of life relies more on those small, humble, stones, grains of sand, than on grains of sand, than on flamboyant arches and vaults

� Truly these stones are the scandal, the stumbling blocks, which unmask all tonitruantstatements about human dignity

Cortesia – Courtoisie

� There is word which is hardly translatable in English, which is the French word “courtoisie”. (Ital. and Span. “cortesia”)(Ital. and Span. “cortesia”)

� It is not courtesy, but it includes several different notions.

� It comes from court, literally it means the quality of living in a court

Langue d’Oc

� An ideal of aristocratic life, a theory about love, a code of social conduct

� Mizura (measure, ratio, harmony, timing, opportunity, sense of limit)

Cortezia

A lifestyle and a moral elegance, politeness of conduct and spirit based on generosity, loyalty, hospitality, discretion, which manifests itself in which manifests itself in kindness, well ordered life, wisdom, graciousness, humility, but also by desire for fame, liberality, refusal of lies, of envy, of cowardice.

Cortesia as,

� SOCIAL NORM - rules about social roles and relationships among them, code of social conduct, “instruction” about the tribute to provide to individuals

� RESPECT FOR PEOPLE –� RESPECT FOR PEOPLE –how one can be kind, warm, welcoming in an actual context with actual people

� COMMUNICATION CODE -politeness, etiquette, pragmatic code, in essence linguistic

Why older people are to be treated by “cortesia”?

� BECAUSE THEY ARE HUMANS – cortesia is the essential quality that should rule all human relations, quite independently from any further distinction –also enemies should be always treated with cortesia (which is not love)not love)

� BECAUSE THEY ARE FRAIL –the more someone is weak the more one should be protected by cortesia rules. Cortesia aims to prevent harm, offenses. The more one is easy to be harmed, the more she should be treated with cortesia

“Cortesi” Technologies (cortesia by design)

1. Technology is not just the devise or the system, technology is the devise + its operational procedures. One can understand One can understand the social impact of a given technology only to the extent one understand technology and operational procedures as a whole


2. Technology should be harmonic, and should imply harmonic operational procedures. Ugly objects which oblige to bad manners, oblige to bad manners, disharmonic, vulgar, violent, or rude gestures, are hardly “cortesi” . Liberal arts are essential to technologists.


3. Technology should be welcoming, one should never feel himself stupid, ridiculous, unable, handicapped because of a technologybecause of a technology


4. Technology should be respect social roles, paying the right tribute to each one. Yet the more the expected user is weak, the more a given technology should deserve her careful deserve her careful attention, like a “cortese” house owner who deserves most attention to the most humble guest. Vulgar people deserve their attention only to the king and despise the poor.


5. Technology is cortese as far as respect intimacy, confidentiality, social, personal, and physical distances and boundaries. It is boundaries. It is cortese as far as it does not betray trust

Conclusions