Has anyone ever wonder what effect the middle classes have had on philosophy? I have tried to find some philosophers, who have come from the working classes. I didn’t find any, are there any? I am guessing that their reality has become THE reality. What do you all think?
“middle classes”???
I mean that Lenin; the leader of the Russian revolution came from a middle class background. As far as I know, he lived in Switzerland for most of his life never working. Marx; although living in poverty after writing his books, spent his youth in comfort.
These are just two examples, I am not picking out anyone in particular. The only point is that philosophy has a great emphasis towards viewing things from a middle class perspective. Doesn’t this impact on how we view the world?
I have also noticed this. I think that most working class people are too busy trying to feed their own families and find other ways to escape poverty or what not to sit around and philosophize (priorities). In my experience, most working people actually detest philosophers (except Marxist ones, I guess). Ironically, as you pointed out, even these were rather well-off themselves (intellectuals).
Alright, Marx was poor, but he had Engels to financially support him. (I also hear he spent all his life inside the British museum )
marx never really lived in poverty he spent quite a bit of engels’ money
it’s obvious that members of the bourgeiosie are gonna be the ones that will do most of the philosophizing, after all the aristocracy was more likely to read classics at most and the proletariat uneducated, and its members illiterate. this “middle class” definition is extremely vague btw. the “middle” classes no longer exist since aristocracy is fortunately almost extinct
i agree with stoned kazak. but in the sense of old philosophers finding one from the middle class was rare, given that aristocracy existed. it went slaves<pesants<lords and ladies<king and queen. theres not really any room for a middle class…
read Leo Tolstoy and his views on meaning if you would like proof. he illustrates my point quite poetically
Diogenes of Sinope was lower class as far as I can tell, and then he lived his life purposefully poor.
slaves<pesants<lords
slaves< pesants <lords
slaves<
peasants*
<lords
- slaves<
- peasants
- <lords
Between one and three is two. That makes Peasants the middle class. It’s just a logical formula.