Just wondered if anyone knew the marital status/history of any of the big philosophers. It doesn’t seem like most of them would have chosen to marry, however I’ve heard that some of them have.
Unfortunately I am at least as interested in gossip about philosophers as in their ideas. Here is a short list. I believe it is accurate:
Socrates: married (to Xantippe)
Aristotle: married
Abelard: married (to Heloise) Medieval philosopher
Rousseau: married
Kant: not married
Schopenhauer: not married (woman-hater)
Mill: married
Marx: married
Nietzsche:not married
Frege: married
Russell: married (several times, I think five)
Wittgenstein: not married
Heidegger: married (Hanna Arendt was his lover)
Carnap: married
Quine: married
Rawls: married
Actually, for the record, Abelard wasn’t married to Heloise. They were having a relationship without the benefit of marriage and Heloise’s dad cut Abelard’s nuts off for it. And Nominalism was born ta-da!!!
alan watts was married repeatedly
According to Anthony Kenny, A Brief History of Western Philosophy: “[Abelard] became [Héloïses] lover probably in 1116, and when she became pregnant married her secretly. Héloïse had been reluctant to marry, and shortly after the wedding retired to live in a convent. Fulbert, outraged by Abelard’s treatment of his niece, sent two henchmen to his room at night to castrate him.”
if that’s true, then I stand corrected. But abelard still doesn’t have any nuts. I find it amazing that one of the “inventors” of Nominalism didn’t have any nuts. IS THERE A CONNECTION? FIND OUT ON THE NEXT E HOLLYWOOD SECRETS
some philosopher’s didn’t mary because they were gay…
…and…?
It just seems like it’s hard (if not impossible) to accomplish things like these guys did if you’re married. The married people I know seem to put most of their energies into keeping the marriage afloat; there isn’t much time for intellectual conquest. I just can’t see how a guy like Russel could have figured out the things that he did, and still have time for a relationship. I guess that’s why he had so many marriages?
I definitely do not agree with this. My relationship with my husband is fueled by and fuels our intellectual productivity. We are actually bonded by and turned on (very) by what we write and how we further our intellectual lives. Part of our sensuality is in inspiring each others’ intellect. The key is marrying an intellectual and life PARTNER. Of course, we aren’t exactly famous philosphers (yet!), but I’d imagine that some of these guys may have just been lucky enough to find their intellectual muse: think Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as a great example (they were never married, but had this sort of thing going…)
Psquared, I’m with Molelove on this. I don’t think love and intellect are mutually exclusive pursuits. The important thing, I believe is that one’s partner understands and supports thier search for knowledge/wisdom. If that understanding and support isn’t there, yes, it would be extremely hard to keep both a relationship and studies afloat, but if it is there, then a relationship can be a boon to one’s search for knowledge rather than a liability.
and my point about some of them being hohmosexual was that just they were never married didn’t mean they weren’t involved in serious relationships… pedastry in relation to philosophy also needs to be considered…
There are consequences for being married and consequences when not married. When you are married, in my opinion, the level of focus on your philosophical work may diminish because no you have a wife and possibly a family to worry about. And it follows that you would have less time to devote to writing.
The other side of the coin can also be advantageous. When you are in love or married, you gain new perspectives. Perspectives on life that cannot be experienced any other way. So I would say yes. Being married or not will impact not just a writer/philosopher but anyone.
I won’t speak in terms of children, because that’s a whole other story since they are totally dependant on you. But with a spouse, what do you mean now you have someone to worry about?
We always have something to worry about (or nothing to worry about, depending on your temperament 
), but I don’t agree that once we are married we suddenly have this person who we are constantly and vigilently consumed with to the point that the rest of our endeavors suffer.
The degree to which one can be inspired and encouraged by a life partner (and I mean directly in terms of intellectual work) is worlds greater than whatever time consuming aspects of worrying about or caring for that person.
I admit I am always thinking about my husband because I love him immensely, but the time I spend thinking or caring about him (in terms of wasted productivity) is nothing in comparison to how productive I am because of how he inspires, encourages, enables me, etc. I can say with complete certainty that the quality and quantity of both my husband’s and my work (we are both academics and writers) has and continues to increase with every year that we are together and directly because of the special and intimate position we have in each other’s lives.
As spouses, we know each other completely, and spend all of our time together and so there is a very real investment, commitment, and understanding of each other’s work that is manifested in the way we are able to edit, critique, encourage, inspire, etc. Its in a way that no other peer could possibly offer. We’ll spend an entire weekend debating and obsessing some point he or I am trying to think through for some story or paper or whatever (which creates a nice cycle of heated passionate argument to heated passionate sex back to calm rational consideration back to heated passionate argument - its great! ha!).
You can’t really get that type of support anywhere outside of an intimate life partnership. And there’s no way to compare that kind of intellectual support with the time wasted “worrying” about each other. Then again, its important to structure your relationship such that there is complete trust and both partners openly verbalize what they need. I don’t worry about his love for me because I trust our love completely. And I don’t worry about him being satisfied in the relationship because I trust that he asks for everything he needs and vice versa. And I don’t worry about his safety because he’s a big boy and can take care of himself.
I understand what you are saying and I cannot argue because I’m still young(21) and not married. However, from my experiences with relationships (some which felt like I was married 
) you do worry about the other person a little bit. Especially their safety because there are some things in the world that we do not have control over. But that goes with out saying for anyone you love. And I understand that you are not completely 100% consumed but you do committ time to that person that could be your time spent on yourself and your philosophy.
That’s what I was trying to get at when I said that you experience different perspectives on things. If you weren’t with him, how could you be “inspired, encouraged, and enabled” specifically like that? You couldn’t. And that’s why its beautiful.
Could anyone imagine what Nietzsche’s writings would be like. I would assume he would have a different outlook on women. He referred to them as being no more good than for “reproducing the warrior.” I would imagine his views to be more than changed.
Alisdair MacIntyre married and it hasn’t seemed to hurt him
Gilles Deleuze was married and had (I think) three Kids. And he still read like he was in a burning library, looking for a fire extinguisher at the bottom of one of the books.
hehehe i like that image. except, wouldn’t he just be throwing the books around frantically instead of actually reading them?
p.s. i’m also in s.e. florida!
well, yeees, but you see you apparently have to read the book to get the fire extinguisher. Stupid OSHA requirement
Where in SE Florida are you?
I realize that there must exist some different perspective that can be gained from being married/in love. However, I wonder about the time issue. There are only so many hours in the day. Of course if your spouse if interested in the same things that you are, then it may be easier to spend evening after evening talking, thinking, writing, or studying. But how many people have a siginficant other (outside of molelove) that is involved in the same sort of intellectual pursuits as themselves? It is possible, and in my experience likely, to fall head over heels for someone of a lesser or totally different type of intellectual ability.