Another Gamma Philosopher

Schopenhauer was unquestionably a Gamma male

We’ve already determined that Friedrich Nietszche was a Gamma male. And there certainly isn’t any room for doubt about Arthur Schopenhauer’s SSH status, given the preponderance of available evidence.

Letter from Johanna Schopenhauer to her son Arthur Schopenhauer, dated 6 November 1807.

You are not an evil human; you are not without intellect and education; you have everything that could make you a credit to human society. Moreover, I am acquainted with your heart and know that few are better, but you are nevertheless irritating and unbearable, and I consider it most difficult to live with you.

All of your good qualities become obscured by your super-cleverness and are made useless to the world merely because of your rage at wanting to know everything better than others; of wanting to improve and master what you cannot command. With this you embitter the people around you, since no one wants to be improved or enlightened in such a forceful way, least of all by such an insignificant individual as you still are; no one can tolerate being reproved by you, who also still show so many weaknesses yourself, least of all in your adverse manner, which in oracular tones, proclaims this is so and so, without ever supposing an objection.

If you were less like you, you would only be ridiculous, but thus as you are, you are highly annoying.

Let’s see if Wikipedia can provide us with any additional evidence.

Schopenhauer was also captivated by the beautiful Karoline Jagemann, mistress of Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and he wrote to her his only known love poem.  Despite his later celebration of asceticism and negative views of sexuality, Schopenhauer occasionally had sexual affairs—usually with women of lower social status, such as servants, actresses, and sometimes even paid prostitutes. In a letter to his friend Anthime he claims that such affairs continued even in his mature age and admits that he had two out-of-wedlock daughters (born in 1819 and 1836), both of whom died in infancy.  In their youthful correspondence Arthur and Anthime were somewhat boastful and competitive about their sexual exploits—but Schopenhauer seemed aware that women usually did not find him very charming or physically attractive, and his desires often remained unfulfilled.

Gamma confirmed.

“Did milady enjoy her poem?”

One of his affairs supposedly became serious, and for a while he contemplated marriage to a rich Italian noblewoman—but, despite his mentioning this several times, no details are known and it may have been Schopenhauer exaggerating.

That rich Italian noblewoman never existed. Or, more precisely, she may have existed, but she wasn’t involved with Schopenhauer and had no idea that he was fantasizing about marrying her.

He contacted publishers, offering to translate Hume into German and Kant into English, but his proposals were declined.  Returning to Berlin, he began to study Spanish so he could read some of his favorite authors in their original language. He liked Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Miguel de Cervantes, and especially Baltasar Gracián. He also made failed attempts to publish his translations of their works. A few attempts to revive his lectures—again scheduled at the same time as Hegel's—also failed, as did his inquiries about relocating to other universities.

Definitely getting a Gamma midwit vibe here. Trying to publish his translations from a language he obviously hadn’t mastered is a very Gamma thing to do.

His studies on Hindu and Buddhist texts were constrained by the lack of adequate literature, and the latter were mostly restricted to Theravada Buddhism. He also claimed that he formulated most of his ideas independently, and only later realized the similarities with Buddhism.

Gamma midwit confirmed. How does one either a) think one is going to get away with plagiarizing material from ancient texts or b) fail to realize the similarities of one’s own “independent ideas” with pre-existing material that one is actively studying? The Gamma always convinces himself that his very clever and entirely transparent machinations are somehow opaque to others.

During his Berlin years, Schopenhauer occasionally mentioned his desire to marry and have a family. For a while he was unsuccessfully courting 17-year-old Flora Weiss, who was 22 years younger than himself.

What a surprise! One reason Gammas are so reliably unsuccessful with women is that they usually pursue women who are inappropriate, obviously out of their league, and often belong to another man already.

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Never take seriously the philosophy of any man who has obviously and observably failed at life.

Notice the eyes and their sense of injured superiority. Both the eyes and the expression are very different from the Sigmas.