What do you think that Schopenhauer means about women in this text?

Question

The philosopher asserts, "Women are directly fitted for acting as the nurses and teachers of our early childhood by the fact that they are themselves childish, frivolous and short-sighted; in a word, they are big children all their life long--a kind of intermediate stage between the child and the full-grown man, who is man in the strict sense of the word."

What does Schopenhauer mean?

old lady

I agree with your comments to an extent, but I would say that you're letting Schopenhauer off a little too easily; he was a misogynist, plain and simple.

Answer 1

He means that he is afraid of women.

Answer 2

He is right in a way but im being subjective as I fit his description.

Women have a larger corpus collesum than men that means they filter/intergrate more information from the right side of their brains than men do,core functions of the right are empathy/subjectivity,social understanding/cues,holistic thinking and the imagination - good qualties for nurses to have and you still find women dominate the profession.Those last qualties children have in abundance,I don't see the negavity of having these qualties.

I'm sure there are zillions of woman who are less right oriented/intergrated [I am at times] but they are outside the majority and thats why most girls grab the doll and not the truck.

Answer 3

It is helpful to put those comments into context. He was in 1788. It is unlikely that born in Germany at this time that his perception of women was anything like we have today. As a result, some of his thoughts come into question as they were timely then. To bring his thoughts into the present through study is to bring the ways of the past into the present.

As there was speculation that his father committed suicide, it is likely that he was not emotionally well and affected by the event. No doubt a reason to seek out philosophy to explain those life events. In addition to being rejected by Karoline Jagoman (sp?). It was likely he was not a well balanced man emotionally.

Being rejected by her, it is unlikely that he would have a positive opinion of women.

Answer 4

It's from the essay "On Women."

It's quite an amusing misogynist rant.

I assume he means, quite simply, that women are naive and intellectually inferior. Somewhat, I suppose, like a well-meaning teenager who thinks himself an adult but doesn't quite understand enough of the world, yet, to act responsibly.

The quote you chose is certainly one of his more tame assertions in the essay. He fails so completely to keep his own disdain for women out of the work that it is simply and obviously too subjective to be taken seriously. I can't even imagine that any of his contemporaries would have read it and not seen it as anything other than a treatise of fear and hatred. He actually manages to present himself in very nearly the same light as he attempts to describe women.

I think it's pathetic and sad. Love him or hate him Schopenhauer was quite an intelligent man. Nonetheless, he allowed his own emotions to so greatly affect his thoughts and opinions on women that he couldn't even realize how he was allowing them to distract from the points he was attempting to make.

Answer 5

He means exactly what he says - there are three phases in human development. The child, which is an actual child. The semi-child, which is the female,and the adult, which is the male.
You have to remember, however, the context in which Schopenhauer wrote this and the times in which he lived. Women WERE treated like children and because little was expected of them, they accomplished little. There were a few exceptions, but on the whole women were protected, sheltered and cosseted against the problems of the 'real world'. Mercifully, the world has progressed beyond this stilted and stultifying line of thought.

Answer 6

He means that he thinks that because women in his day were uneducated and kept behind house doors most of the time, that he believed they were huge idiot children, never mind that society forced them to remain sheltered and uneducated. However, in this day and age, women still seem to remain the best at communicating with children and raising them to adulthood, while also being able to go out into the world and earn a proper living and tend to extracurricular activities. We also have better control of our tempers even with all of the same stressors in life and that is why we have fewer accidents and our insurance is lower.

Answer 7

His attempt to deceive! Women are not big children, but most often nurturing and caring individuals. Men are the children that never grow up. Ask a mother!

Answer 8

He said that women are childish I do not agree with this, I think that I have had to grow up more then some men ever will in life. Some men I can't hold a candle to though, but that is just that I admire them so much.

Answer 9

He means that women make the best caretakers because they're a lot like children themselves. And because they're like children, they understand people's needs very well.

That's all he's saying :)

Answer 10

It means women display the Peter Pan complex overall, while men sometimes display it.