Having reread Lives Of The Mind by Roger Kimball -- it takes more than one reading for me to absorb material that abstract -- I was struck by the tawdriness of the biographies of the last two centuries of philosophers. Illegitimate children, fascinations with 14 year-olds, exaggerated self-regard, an almost fawning willingness to collaborate with evil governments -- there seems a higher-than-expected percentage of all of these.
We are all subject to a world of temptations, and we should perhaps not expect philosophers to be much better than we are. But should they be so much worse? These are the people -- the Rousseaus, Hegels, Heidiggers, deMans, Foucaults, Kierkegaards, Schopenhauers -- who are telling us how to live.
Is their intense abstraction a mere intellectualization, an attempt to escape from the zoos of their own hearts?
i'm currently reading an anthology of great philosophical works (which, by the way, works quite well to help me fall asleep), and I think the answer is Yes.
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