u/SpleenDematerialized — reddlx

Low-effort instrumentalization of Schopenhauer on YT

After a quick survey of the content concerning Schopenhauer on YouTube, I came across this video, which strikes me as somewhat emblematic of how Schopenhauer gets degraded and instrumentalized to serve as a culture war sock puppet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO503gY9N7E

I will not waste my time to write a serious, substantial critique of it, because it is obviously undeserving of any serious attention and thought. Yet, I still have a (foolish) desire to correct the record in the small ways I can.

Most of the video is based on Schopenhauer's aphorisms concerning the wisdom of life, concretely on the few lines on the particular honor of women (viz. sexual purity). He basically argues that this kind of honor only serves the purpose to put them into a better collective bargaining position, when it comes to the marriage market, on which women have (or rather had) to succeed in order to achieve material well-being. The video then goes on that current female promiscuity has destroyed this bargaining position for women who now are faced with the negative consequences of loosing it. This clearly nonsense in Western countries, because women do not have to rely on the marriage market anymore for their material well-being.

The video also brings up children who were not discussed in the text in relation to sexual honor. And sure, is it better to raise children in a stable family environment? Of course. But do you know what is even better and also the actual Schopenhauerian ethical prescription: celibacy.

Furthermore, the video makes the point that the prescriptions in Schopenhauer's aphorisms are, contrary to what he himself writes in the preface, not only prudential suggestions of limited ethical relevance, but also expressions of how his main work would be applied on a societal level to limit the negative effects of an unmediated pursuit of the Will. Even if we granted this anti-Schopenhauer interpretation of the role of his aphorisms, it would still miss the point that the desire to regulate the marriage market or to uphold "female sexual honor" is itself an expression of the Will that comes, like every pursuit of desire, with its own unique suffering.

The final disgrace of the video is that it insults Schopenhauer at the end:

>He was difficult, often cruel, pessimistic, and cynical (24:21)

How was he cruel and cynical? The video does not even bother to justify this claim, it just presents it as were it a fact.

Finally, what is there to say about the sad state of online discourse that has not been remarked a thousand times before? At least keep Schopenhauer out of your slop! But again, I am just a fool for even entertaining the idea that the old master will not be slandered in this online mud-slinging.

u/SpleenDematerialized — 5 days ago

▲ 0 r/analyticidealism

An argument against the actual existence of ESP and Psi-abilities

Under an objective idealist framework, like AI, we have to seriously consider the possibility of ESP and Psi-abilities. There could be all kinds of weird interactions between individual and universal mind that express themselves in phenomena that would be excluded by physicalist metaphysics. Yet there is also an unfortunate tendency of many idealists to be overly enthusiastic about these possibilities and maybe to be less skeptical than they should be. Personally, I think there is some solid evidence out there that gives some credence to the existence of ESP and Psi-abilities, yet there are also strong arguments against it. In this post, I would like to discuss one argument that is a bulwark of my skepticism:

It is clear that such abilities would give everyone that harbors them (let's call them sensitive humans) an advantage over baseline humans. Thus, we would expect that selective pressures in human competition, would eventually result in sensitive humans dominating society, even if it was only a small advantage. Furthermore, societies which had elites comprised of sensitive humans at the helm would out-compete baseline societies. But if we look at our history and at our current societies, we find a different picture: our "psychic overlords" are strangely absent. Thus, how can we reconcile the plausibility of and evidence for, for example, ESP abilities with this empirical lack of elites dominated by sensitive humans?

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u/SpleenDematerialized — 3 months ago

▲ 16 r/Epicureanism

Which systems do you utilize to supplement Epicurean ethics?

In his protreptic work Tending the Epicurean Garden H. Crespo stresses the importance of being open to incorporate ideas from different traditions into our theory and practice of Epicureanism. For a wisdom tradition to be more than just an intellectual curiosity it needs to be malleable and dynamic. It needs to be alive. This is especially important for Epicureanism due to the very fragmentary state of its source texts. Of the many works authored by Epicurus and friends only a very small slice has made it all the way from antiquity onto our bookshelves. So my question for you is: how do you fill the gaps? Which other philosophies have become pillars holding up the architecture of your Epicureanism?

Personally, I subscribe to Schopenhauerian philosophy. They share a common ethics of withdrawal and resignation, and an acute awareness of the suffering that results from pursuing unnecessary desires. In addition, Schopenhauer provides two other outlets that can bring us relief: art and moral awareness. Nothing smooths the waves on the ocean of the soul like being lost in aesthetic contemplation and nothing provides more levity than letting go of egoism and seeing yourself in your fellow human being.

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u/SpleenDematerialized — 3 months ago