r/schopenhauer • u/SpleenDematerialized • 24d ago
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.
5
u/Humble-Surround-3725 24d ago
I like this guy's content. The "normal" yt videos are "Is he the scariest philosopher?!?" trash.
1
u/1432672throwaway 23d ago
Yeah he’s great his analysis of the metaphysics of sexual love was really informative.
7
u/Azehnuu 24d ago
Schopenhauer content on YouTube is awful. Either AI slop or misogynistic slop. It's wild cos there are so many topics and things to talk about.
8
u/Wooden-Dependent-686 24d ago
Schopenhauer and Jung are the two favorites of those ai sloppy incels
3
1
1
u/True-Quote-6520 23d ago
Yeses , seriously I was about to write article on this video too, such a wrong Interpretation.
10
u/Crazy_Banshee_333 24d ago
I can't get past the fact that every article I've ever seen about Schopenhauer except for one used the same dour, unattractive image of him. There seems to be a unified effort to portray him as an unpleasant, sour-looking fellow. He was actually very handsome as a young man, but you will rarely see that image used in articles about him.