The metaphysics of sexual love was published, for the first time, by Arthur Schopenhauer in 1844 as a supplement to”The world as will and representation”. We have already seen[1] how in this work the German philosopher asserts that sexual instinct is only a deceit by nature to perpetuate the species in its better expression and in this sense he had anticipated a biologist’s work of last centuries[2].
In this post we refer to Schopenhauer as a forerunner of medical genetics applied to sexual instinct. In the appendix to the Metaphysics of Sexual Love Schopenhauer deals with a particular aspect of homosexuality: paederasty. This word, nowadays, has become obsolete, therefore it’s difficult to translate it into the present language; in any case it mustn’t be confused with paedofilia[3]. After defining paederasty as something monstrous against nature Schopenhauer makes a long, very interesting historical survey concerning the spreading of the”vice” in all times and all countries:..Everybody knows, among the Greeks and the Romans, it was generally widespread and was publickly practised and confessed fearlessly and shamelessly. All ancient writers give an important evidence of all this.Particularly all poets’ works are full of it: not even chaste Virgil makes an exception[4]…In the symposium Plato, in Socrates’s glory, even praises, as an exeptional heroic deed, having the latter rejected Alcibiades who offered him. In Senofonte’s Memorables Socrates tells about paederastry as something irreprehensible and even praiseworthy (Stob.,Flor.,Vol.II,p.57)
Always in the Memorables(lib.I,cap 3 § 8), in the part where he warns against love dangers, Socrates tells this way only about love for boys so as to make us almost think there were no women. Also Aristotle (Pol II, 9) tells about paederasty as a usual thing without blaming it, he reminds that, with the Celts, it was considered as something to be publicly honoured[5], while, with the Cretans, laws favoured it as an instument against overpopulation[6]; then he tells about love for males from Filolao, the legislator ecc.[7] Cicerone even say: apud greco opprobrio fuit adolescentibus si amatores non haberent[8]…The absolute universality and the tenacious ineradicability of the thing(paederasty) show it originates somehow from human nature itself, since only for this reason it can, in any time and in any place, appear as a confirmation of naturam espelles furca, tamen usque recurrit[9].
…But a thing so basically against nature which even better opposes to nature just in its most important purpose it cares more[10] has to come from nature itself, is such an unprecedented paradox that its explanation appears as a difficult problem; yet now I intend to solve it by discovering the nature that is on the base. As a starting point I’ll make use of a passage by Aristotle(Politics, VII, 16. Here he explains, above all, too young people beget children of inferior quality, faulty, destined to remain small; and besides he says the same thing is valid for the products of too old people[11]. Now what Aristotle considers as a rule fot the individual, Stobeo states it as a law for the community at the end of his exposition of peripatetic philosophy[12]: So that bodies are provided with vigour and perfection, neither too young people nor too old ones mustn’t get married because, in both ages, only faulty and weak children would be begot[13].
[1] Mechanism at genetic feedback in human population (Rebellious Angels 1°)
[2] Richard Dawkins, a biologist and the author of “The Selfish gene” where this scientist supports the thesis that man is only a robot, a machine for the survival of the true constituents of life on the planet earth; the genes, the little molecules of DNA making up the genetic inheritance that is to say the guiding brain of every living creature. Therefore genes should be, according to the biologist, the basic elements of life on the planet earth.
[3] paederastia f.n. (from Greek παιδεραστία der. of παιδεραστής «pederast», through fr. pédérastie) Tendency and erotic practice which, in the original meaning of the word, is a sexual relation of a grown-up with an adolescent. With a wider and commoner meaning, in the modern use, male homosexuality. Enciclopedia Treccani.it
[4] Virgil.Bucolics,Eclogue II: the poet sings Coridone’s love for young Alessi.
[5] Aristotle Politics book II, cap 9,1269
[6] Aristotle Politics book II, cap 10,127
[7] Aristotle Politics book I, cap 12,1274
[8] Cicerone De republica, IV,3,3
[9] “Drive nature away with a pitchfork and it’ll be back again”. Horace, Epistulae 1,10,24
[10] The perpetuation of human species
[11] γαρ των πρεσβυτερων εκγωνα καθαπερ τα των νεωτερων, ατελη γιγνεται , και τοισ σωμασι, και ταισ διανοιαισ, τα δε των γεγηρακοτων αστενη (nam ut juniorerum, ita et grandiorum natu foetus inchoatis atque imperfectis corporibus mentibusque nascuntur et imbecilla est) . Aristotle Oolitics VII cap 16, 1335.
[12] Ecl eth, LII,c 7
[13] προσ την ρωμην αγαν των σωματων και τελειοτητα δειν μητε νεωτερων αγαν μητε πρεσυτερων τουσ γαμουσ ποιεισθαι αθελη γαρ γιγνεσθαι κατ’ ανφωτερασ τασ ήλικιαξ και τελειωξ αστενη τα εκγωνα (oportet, corporum roboris et perfectionis causa, nec juniores justo, nec seniores matrimonio jungi, quia circa utramque aetatemproles fieret imbecilli set imperfecta.
Translated from “Il Virus Intelligente” by Enrica Narducci
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Ferdinando Gargiulo offers you a new perspective on why new viral epidemics, assaults, infanticides, suicide epidemics and even environmental catastrophes. Always engaged in his research decides to create a blog to offer his readers content of high value.