Nietzsche the Philosopher--Women and Marriage

[Guest guest]

> Nietzsche believed that there was a radical difference between the mind

> of man and the mind of woman and that the two sexes reacted in

> diametrically different ways to those stimuli which make up what might be

> called the clinical picture of human society.

 

Hardly an original observation ... ? They sure threw the term "philosopher"

around freely in those days ....

 

> Now, it is plain from the foregoing that, though women's business in the

> world is of such a character that it inevitably leads to physical

> degeneration, her constant need to overcome the effects of this

> degeneration by cunning produces constant mental activity, which, by the

> law of exercise, should produce, in turn, great mental efficiency. This

> conclusion, in part, is perfectly correct, for women, as a sex, are

> shrewd, resourceful and acute; but the very fact that they are always

> concerned with imminent problems and that, in consequence, they are

> unaccustomed to dealing with the larger riddles of life, makes their

> mental attitude essentially petty. This explains the circumstance that

> despite their mental suppleness, they are not genuinely strong

> intellectually. Indeed, the very contrary is true. Women's constant

> thought is, not to lay down broad principles of right and wrong; not to

> place the whole world in harmony with some great scheme of justice; not to

> consider the future of nations; not to make two blades of grass grow where

> one grew before; but to deceive, influence, sway and please men. Normally,

> their weakness makes masculine protection necessary to their existence and

> to the exercise of their overpowering maternal instinct, and so their

> whole effort is to obtain this protection in the easiest way possible. The

> net result is that feminine morality is a morality of opportunism and

> imminent expediency, and that the normal woman has no respect for, and

> scarcely any conception of abstract truth. Thus is proved the fact noted

> by Schopenhauer and many other observers: that a woman seldom manifests

> any true sense of justice or of honor.

 

Rather confusing "philosophy"...how is it that a creature possessed of such

pathetic intellect can actually "sway, manipulate, deceive, [or] influence"

men? How is it possible that these towers of staggering intellect (men)

cannot protect themselves from this phenomenon, which emanates from such an

unexpected source, it being possessed of an "essentially petty" nature?

Seems to have a few holes in it, this one....

>

> His ideal was not resignation or flight, but an intelligent defiance and

> opposition.

 

Rather extreme measures to take against such a creature, surely?

 

> A man conscious of his strength, observes Nietzsche, need have no fear of

> women. It is only the man who finds himself utterly helpless in the face

> of feminine cajolery that must cry, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" and flee.

 

OK, that's enough....this is too funny ...I can't read any more....