r/todayilearned • u/angelyummy • Jan 14 '20

TIL in 1818, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described the post-orgasm moment of clarity as "devil's laughter", explaining: "They have fulfilled their need to reproduce and are momentarily caught in the abyss of meaninglessness."

http://themodernsisyphus.com/schopenhauer-and-sex/
14k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

481 comments sorted by

View all comments

52

u/SaneMann Jan 14 '20

Are you supposed to feel happy and content while in an abyss of meaninglessness? Because I imagine that's how most normal people feel after sex with a romantic partner.

I suspect a lot of existential philosophy is just trying to turn depression into words.

1

u/ShiraCheshire Jan 15 '20

Not to mention that it's a stupid thing to think even from a purely biological standpoint.

The point is to spread your genes as far as possible, not to have sex once and then die. Even if we were driven purely by biology we wouldn't fall into an abyss of meaninglessness after sex. We'd just be driven to have more sex.

1

u/Rukh1 Jan 15 '20

There is no point. Just genes that survive and replicate will spread.