Aging Book: Chapter 1 (part 3) Imagination in Shelley's Novel Frankenstein

This is the third, and final, video lecture covering themes from Chapter 1 of my new book Aging and the Ethics of Longevity Science (OUP, 2026). I argue that the central character in the novel, Victor Frankenstein (the doctor, not the Creature he creates), expresses three distinct attitudes towards translational science that can be applied to translational gerontology. These are: 1. Cavalier experimentalist: The disposition to try to control nature for the sake of satisfying human curiosity. (Victor’s attitude be fore he creates the creature); 2. Conservative: The disposition that prescribes that curiosity- oriented scientific innovation should be shunned, and instead we should appreciate what we already know and have. (Victor’s attitude after the creature kills his loved ones); and 3. Wisdom- inquiry science/ responsible biology: The disposition that maintains that scientific inquiry must “give absolute priority to the intellectual tasks of articulating our problems of living, proposing and criticizing possible solutions, possible and actual human actions” (Maxwell 2007, 78). We must consider the ends of translational science, as well as the means employed to achieve those ends, as serving the public good. (This approximates Victor’s attitude when, on Walton’s ship in the Arctic at the end of the novel, he makes his final remarks on the moral responsibilities of science). Aging and the Ethics of Longevity Science is be available to access for free online from Oxford University Press (late August 2026). Available from the publisher at: https://global.oup.com/academic/produ...