Schopenhauer: Why Society Hates Intelligence | Counsels & Maxims 34

[Music] in section 34 of councils and maxims schopenhauer gives us an account of why it is that intelligence is met with derision and shunning in the social sphere and why for a similar reason uh people of low intelligence tend to be very socially successful he also does a little bit of amateur psychologizing uh analyzing the sort of deep uh unconscious causes of this social fact about intelligence and stupidity and he makes towards the end some perhaps controversial remarks about women and Beauty and the ways in which women judge each other in a social sphere so

here's what he writes a man must be still a greenhorn in the ways of the world if he imagines that he can make himself popular in society by exhibiting intelligence and discernment with the immense majority of people such qualities excite hatred and resentment which are rendered all the harder to Bear by the fact that people are obliged to suppress even from themselves the real reason of their anger what actually takes place is this a man feels and perceives that the person with whom he is conversing is intellectually very much his Superior he thereupon secretly and

half unconsciously concludes that his interlocutor must form a proportionately low and limited estimate of his abilities that is a method of reasoning an enem which Rouses the bitterest feelings of sullen and rancorous hatred schopenhauer's footnote compare world as will in representation book two page 256 where I quote from Dr Johnson and from MK the friend of gerta's Youth the former says there is nothing by which a man exasperates most people more than by displaying a superior ability of brilliancy in conversation they seem pleased at the time but their Envy makes them curse him at their

heart reference Boswell's life of Johnson 74 so that's I'll pause there at the end of schopenhauer's footnote he's given us here an account of why it is that intelligent people he says are unpopular it is because half unconsciously people recognize the distance between them and assume that just as they can see the superiority the other person is conscious and mindful of their inferiority it and they unable to admit this to themselves they feel a kind of resentment thereby a sullen and rangerous hatred at this this we might borrow a term from nche call it this

pathos of distance between them this is a kind of subterranean unconscious driver of hatred and ranor that the inferior feel for the superior so very Nichi in themes coming out here Shen hour continues and so gassia is quite right in saying that the only way to win affection from people is to show the most animall likee Simplicity of demeanor um in Spanish uh in order to be well-liked the only way is to wear the skin of the simplest of animals simplest of beasts the translators note notes that this is a reference to AR graian an

early 17th century Spanish Pros writer whose work schopenhauer had translated into German he's very highly thought of for kind of worldly philosophy rather rather like this one observations about life back to schopenhauer's text to show your intelligence and discernment is only an indirect way of reproaching other people for being dull and incapable okay that is to say your intelligence will be perceived by people as an insult they will see think that you are you know offending them by your very existence by being intelligent in their presence you're calling to their attention the fact that they

are inferior in this regard and this is an indirect reproach this is a sort of standing insult that every stupid person feels in the presence of every intelligent person so to speak schopenhauer now and besides it is unnatural I'm sorry besides it is natural for a vulgar man to be violently agitated by the sight of opposition in any form and in this case Envy comes in as the secret cause of his hostility for it is a matter of daily observation that people take the greatest pleasure in that which satisfies their vanity and vanity cannot be

satisfied without comparison with others I might note here in passing that it might be the superior person because of his valuation estimation of his own value who is least subject to envy and least therefore least needs to compare himself to others I don't know if shop says that later on but perhaps that's an idea that he'll pursue now there is nothing of which a man is prouder than of intellectual ability for it is this that gives him his commanding place in the animal world it is an exceedingly rash thing for to let anyone see that

you are decidedly Superior to him in this respect and to let other people see it too because he will then thirst for vengeance and generally look about for an opportunity of taking it by means of insult because this is to pass from the sphere of intellect to that of Will and there all are on equal footing as regards the feeling of hostility so a bit more Psychology from schopenhauer an interesting observation that the reason that people turn to insult is because insults bring the dispute the conflict into the realm of will where they have at

least a fighting chance of being your equal where where they feel inferior in the realm of the intellect so a sort of a turn to violence away from reason social violence violence in words because then it's a contest of wills and not of not of Minds so back to schopenhauer now hence while Rank and riches may always reckon upon deferential treatment in society that is something which intellectual ability can never expect to be ignored is the greatest favor shown to it and if people notice it at all it is because they regard it as a

piece of impertinence or else as something to which its possessor has no legitimate right and upon which he dares to Pride himself and in retaliation and revenge for his conduct people secretly try and humiliate him in some other way and if they wait to do this it is only for a fitting opportunity okay again a lot packed into a single uh passage of schopenhauer right Rank and riches are socially respectable but intellectual ability is not for the reasons previously given the best you can hope for is that your intellectual superiority will be ignored in a

social setting if people do notice it they either regard it as impertinence or as something that doesn't really belong to you I'm reminded here of of something from John rolls the treatment of intellectual gifts as being a thing that doesn't really belong to you you don't in a sense from in R's theory of Justice you're not really morally entitled to the benefits that your intellectual gifts would bring you they are in a sense the common property of all mankind because you didn't do anything to achieve them the uh what what you think is yours is

not genuinely yours I don't think that schopenhauer would have much use for RS in that respect back to the text a man may be as humble as possible in his demeanor and yet hardly ever get people to overlook his crime in standing intellectually above them in the garden of roses Sadi makes the remark you should know that foolish people are a h hundredfold more averse to meeting the wise than the wise are indisposed for the company of the foolish okay there's something being around the wise makes the foolish deeply angry in ways that perhaps they're

not fully aware of themselves on the other hand it is a real recommendation to be stupid for just as warmth is agreeable to the body so it does the mind good to feel its superiority and a man will seek company likely to give him this feeling as instinctively as he will approach the fire place or walk in the sun if he wants to get warm we might adapt the old uh the old joke about if you if you want to look thinner stand around with fat people people who are fatter than yourself something similar here

right if you want you want to enjoy your feeling of superiority you associate with people who are your intellectual inferiors certainly not the opposite way you don't try to be around constantly people who are intellectually Superior to you shophow are saying again this is just the work of pure Instinct as people approaching warmth when they're cold approaching the fire when they're cold um this this is the way that Society Works back to back to the text but this means that he will be disliked on account of his superiority and if a man is to be

liked he must really be inferior in point of intellect and the same thing holds good of a woman in point of beauty to give proof of real and unfeigned inferiority to some of the people you meet that is a very difficult business indeed you might say following WC field right if you can fake that you've got it made consider how kindly and heartily a girl who is passably pretty will welcome one who is downright ugly physical advantages are not thought of so much in the case of man though I suppose you would rather a little

man sat next to you than one who was bigger than yourself okay I won't enter into the the height discourse regarding uh the dating Market but I'll just say there it is shopau said it this is why amongst men it is the dull and ignorant and amongst women the ugly who are always popular and in request it is likely to be said of such people that they are extremely good-natured because everyone wants to find a pretext for car in about them a pretext which will blind both himself and other people to the real reason why

he likes them again there's a lot of lot of uh psychologizing going on here looking at the the forces the sort of subrational forces that are driving social acceptance uh and social um social harmony this is also why mental superiority of any sort always tends to isolate its possessor people run away from him out of pure hatred and say all manner of bad things about him by way of justifying their action schopenhauer's footnote if you desire to get on in the world friends and acquaintances are by far the best passport to Fortune the possession of

a great deal of ability makes a man proud and therefore not apt to flatter those who have very little and from whom on that account the possession of great ility should be carefully concealed the consciousness of small intellectual power has just the opposite effect and is very compatible with a humble affable and companionable nature and with respect for what is mean and wretched this is why an inferior sort of man has so many people to befriend and encourage him these remarks are applicable not only to advancement in political life but to all competition for places

of honor and dignity nay even for reputation in the world of science literature and art in learned societies for example mediocrity that very acceptable quality is always to the four whilst Merit meets with tardy recognition or with none at all so it is in everything and that might that might be the most shopen howan footnote we've come across yet uh plainly autobiographic rical if you know a little bit about schopenhauer's life living much of the first part of it anyway in the shadow of hegel's Fame uh thinking Hegel to be uh charlatan himself schopenhauer achieving

maybe only very late in his life the kind of recognition that I think um he felt he deserved for his for his intellectual Merit um so there's a long footnote about the the way Society works right it helps to have friends and acquaintances to get on in the world but people of superior intellect are by their very nature disinclined to flatter people and to be friendly we find just the inverse is the case with people of low intellectual ability because they have more to gain by associating with other people they are much more naturally affable

and friendly and therefore we expect to find all social institutions dominated by mediocrity as this sort of natural fact about human sociability Works its way out so the genius will necessarily be isolated unpopular unsociable we might also say kind of aeric and and cynical as as the man himself here is so back to the main text Beauty in the case of women has a similar effect very pretty girls have no friends of their own sex and they even find it hard to get another girl to keep them company a handsome woman should always avoid applying

for a position as compan compion because the moment she enters the room her prospective mistress will scowl at her beauty as a piece of folly with which both for her own and for her daughter's sake she can very well dispense but if the girl has advantages of rank the case is very different because rank unlike personal qualities which work by the force of mere contrast produces its effect by a process of reflection much in the same way as the particular Hue of a person's complexion depends upon the prevailing tone of his immediate surroundings that's the

end of this section schopenhauer here last remark about beauty Beauty in the case of women has an effect beautiful girls are shunned by other women why because everybody naturally seeks uh somebody inferior to them in this crucial quality whether it's intellect or beauty and so uh women will shun a prettier woman he says uh and but interestingly not the case necessarily if uh she is a woman of rank why is this because reputation we might say fame or nobility rather than operating by contrast where we seeing a pretty girl next to a prettier girl we

think we we are drawn more to the the superior one here rank is a quality that he says kind of has a sort of reflective glow so to be around a f famous person we might say in our time is to acquire a certain kind of social benefit from being near them whereas to be around a a prettier person or a more intell intellectual person is to suffer by the comparison so that's the end of section 34 of councils and maxims schopenhauer's continued practical advice about how to conduct yourself in the world especially if you

are a person of uh moral and intellectual superior quality we'll take a look at section 35 in the next video thanks for watching today [Music] goodbye