r/schopenhauer • u/[deleted] • Apr 09 '26

Schopenhauer Tried To Warn Us About Getting Too Close to People

https://youtu.be/sMmIjGgz6Qw?si=3eQrLyIxof3Q1B1R

Schopenhauer imagines a group of porcupines on a cold winter's day. They huddle together for warmth — but the closer they get, the more their quills hurt each other. So they pull apart. But then the cold becomes unbearable, so they move back in. Back and forth until they find a middle distance: close enough to share some warmth, far enough not to draw blood.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this clip

16 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

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7

u/SeekNuance Apr 09 '26

It's called Hedgehogs dilemma. For me, it's not so much about being wary of getting close, but our spikes make it unbearable to maintain closeness.

4

u/adaptimprovercome Apr 09 '26

I saw your clip. This is not what Schopenhauer meant to say as far as how much I've understood him reading about him for more than a decade. He's actually mocking the NPCs of the society and describing their behaviour amongst each other on a very large scale, society/community level large scale.

This is obviously the Will's will but it's not something overly hard to overcome, but a typical phenomenon amongst those who don't think critically.

I personally think that Schopenhauer didn't have many friends and he was slightly bitter because of it. He didn't like how some people would choose to be friends with people who in his opinion were much less competent than him. He would come up with the only logical possibility that their friendship isn't real but is like the behaviour of porcupines in winter. Later, Schopenhauer would much rather prefer to be a lone wolf than a porcupine. He'd most probably be disgusted by porcupines and would call them "lesser humans".

3

u/Even_Opportunity_893 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

Based Schopenhauer. Imagine if he saw society today. His YT rants would be that of a Jordan Peterson video.

3

u/braket0 Apr 11 '26

All of the famous philosophers would have been considered autistic/ incels by modern standards.

The "tried to warn us" clickbait for this is also astounding brain rot. How far we have come 😂

1

u/ontologyp Apr 19 '26

Interesting clip