A New Philosophy (part two)
There are many thoughts in this post. Some are jumbled. I'm still working through it all.
The reason I've been thinking about this is because our country, and much of the world, seems to have gone in the wrong direction in terms of men and their attitudes about others.
White men, in particular.
It reminded me that during my philosophy period (a long time ago) I almost never encountered a philosopher (a male, of course) who mentioned kindness or empathy.
On a personal note, I'm not sure I truly understood either until after Eli 23.9 was born. And it still took a while. And I didn't respect women to the degree I should have, either. Yet, I was more progressive than most men my age, even back then.
In short, our culture is toxic. As are many of the philosophers, if you read them with a modern lens.
I also believe that when a philosopher becomes highly influential after their death (often well after) it's because a group of advocates believe their work supports a particular political agenda. What we read is often determined not by the quality of thought, but by the efficiency of advocacy.
I'd never say don't listen to deeply unhappy white men who never had a serious relationship in their lifetime /s. I'd definitely say, though, that you should listen to other thinkers as well. Parenthood alone changes you deeply, as does treating women as people instead of objects. Kindness and empathy are essential in a healthy person, and why would we want to be unhealthy? We need to be finding different sources, different thinkers, than the ones we've depended on for many decades.
You could argue that much art is created by deeply unhappy people who are essentially alone (the tortured artist trope). Some is, certainly, but an enormous amount of art is created by people who aren't alone or miserable at all. More importantly, art isn't a system of thought. Art does make you think, but it primarily makes you feel. Guiding your life is an ancillary goal of art, not a primary one, unlike philosophy.
Like I said, these thoughts are still jumbled, but I'm still exploring the topic, and I'm going to write more about it at some point in the future.
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