A New Philosophy
I've been thinking about this article for a few months now: Why do philosophers make unsuitable life partners?
This coincided with a discussion Eli 23.9 started about Nietzsche. He said Nietzsche was one of the five most influential minds in history (true, or at least close), so he wanted to experience his work.
I said if Nietzsche was alive today, he'd be an incel.
Eli burst out laughing, but stay with me. Nietzsche had one romantic relationship in his life, which was both chaste and went south quickly. By all accounts, the only sexual experience he had was with sex workers. he wrote intellectual polemics containing absolutely horrific statements about women. He was also (again, by all accounts), thoroughly unhappy during his life.
If he was alive today, isn't that what we'd call him?
That was inflammatory on purpose, but it begs a larger question. Of the most influential philosophers in history--all of whom were men until recently--almost none had a family or were even married. If I remember correctly, Bertrand Russell did (he had several, actually), but he's a rare exception. Most of these philosophers were also terribly unhappy.
Why, then, are we building the intellectual framework of our lives using the thoughts of these men? Why would we not look for the intellectual discourse of healthy, happy humans to shape our beliefs?
I want to continue this tomorrow, but I just wanted to toss out an opening salvo today. Also, we're going to see Sinners at 3:20. Allegedly.
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