I don't think Weininger was ugly enough to deserve being sided with Andrea Dworkin, and he was much more intelligent.
More on philosophers' women troubles:
Schopenhauer's situation was a bit more complicated than that:
"In 1821 he fell in love with 19-year old opera singer Caroline Richter, called Medon, and had a relationship with her for several years. He discarded marriage plans, however, writing, "Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties", and "Marrying means, to grasp blindfold into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes." At the age of 43 in 1831, he again took interest in a younger woman, the 17-year old Flora Weiss, who rejected him."
So it wasn't exactly a lifelong case of rejection, though the last one seemed to be definitive.
Nietzsche, on the other hand, was rejected once, and once was enough, as you probably know.
Cioran, from what I know, had two women: a French and a German one, and called himself a "pimp".
Philosophers have been unmarried since Antiquity, it's a tradition, and can't be justly ascribed to ugliness.
In fact, the theory that ugliness is a precondition for intelligence may look good on paper, but it's an entirely different story, once it is enacted.
Good post, though.
Undergrounder, I see your Schopenhauer and raise you another:
"Life is a choice between loneliness and vulgarity"
Broken hearts, hurt feelings, and wet dreams are the only things to come from romantic encounters. Sexual gratification is a devalued currency that doesn't buy anything except disappointment and a vague sense of shame.
But I agree with you, Ben: the tough part is preventing rejection from turning into ressentiment. I'm still working on that part myself.
Einsiedler,
Now, where exactly did I claim the opposite? I was only pointing out that, during some part of his life, Schopenhauer had a woman, and she had him, because Ben's quote seemed to imply that he never got any because he was ugly.
And what makes you think I need you to tell me about the degradation and vulgarity implied in a sex life? Believe me, I have been aware of this for a long time now. You tell me nothing new.
Beyond that, for a man to *choose* to be completely alone, if he's not naturally disposed for celibacy, is a will to castrate himself. I have no interest in becoming an eunuch and repressing my manhood. Which is why I am suspicious of anyone who advocates celibacy, even Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, because it breeds resentment.
Besides, I don't like the word "loneliness":
"Language has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone."
Oh, I didn't think you were claiming anything opposite. I was just a little bummed that someone beat me to the Schopenhauer quotations. It was just a friendly explication. You know, for the folks at home. That's all. And ditto on the auto-castration.
Ah, ok. You know, I've noticed, from previous situations in friendships of an intellectual disposition, that a certain hostility happens only when one thinks the other is trying to educate him. Tone is often misread in correspondence, and usually one is just trying to refresh the other's memory, but is misunderstood as a pedagogue. There should be a word for this.
Ugliness is certainly not the only or even main factor in a pursuit of a philosophic life, but I thought it was an undermentioned one worth commenting on.
I'm no Freudian, but I've always found his concept of sublimation to be of worth. I think feelings of rejection or disconnect from the usual channel of excess emotion--love and relationships--are often sublimated into works of art and thought.
Of course the loneliness-solitude distinction is an important one. It can be a matter of perception. Whether willing or unwilling, time alone can be used for contemplation--solitude--or loneliness--despair.
Drowning in ressentiment and self-pity accomplishes nothing but furthering a self-propelled cycle of empty nihilism. But channeling those feelings into something grand justifies the price it took to accomplishment that feat.
Take heart! Men get handsomer with age, even lumpen-Ashkenazi. Poor Weininger didn't give himself enough time. (With women it depends on bone structure.) I doubt that philosophers on the whole are less attractive than the average. 'Twould make an interesting book, though... The ugly vs the handsome. But you'd have to make sure your control group was all dead before you published.
What makes you so sure you are "ugly" to other people? I can't help but wonder if it's just that (as I have often done) you don't notice when people are attracted to you. There have been a number of times when my significant other has noted to me after the occurrence that some person was attracted to me. My response is usually what are you talking about?
Just a thought. Anyway, I took a look at your profile picture, and if that is you, you have amazing eyes.
cheers
Thank you firefly. I suppose you might be right. But I have my doubts, as always.
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