misanthropy
Misanthropy (from ancient Greek μισεῖν miseín "hate, reject" and ἄνθρωπος ánthrōpos "human") is the view of a person who hates people or rejects their proximity. Such a person is called a misanthrope (" misanthropist , misanthropist ").
Definition of terms
Misanthropy characterizes an attitude, not an act. A misanthrope does not have to be violent, aggressive or arrogant, altruistic behavior is not excluded. Misanthropy, despite its etymological appearance, is not conceptually in conflict with the related term philanthropy , which is generally used to describe a person's behavior rather than their attitudes. In extreme cases of disgust towards human beings, the misanthrope isolates itself and leads a hermit existence . This self-chosen isolation must be distinguished from pathological fear of people , in which, despite the desire for it, no closeness to the surrounding human community can be achieved.
philosophy
In his General Comment on the Exposure of Aesthetic Reflective Judgments, Immanuel Kant condemned misanthropy:
"On the other hand, people have to flee, out of misanthropy because one is hostile to them, or out of anthropophobia (fear of people) because one fears them as one's enemies, sometimes ugly, sometimes scornful."
Arthur Schopenhauer often expressed himself in a misanthropic way, for example in the porcupine parable :
“This is how the need of society, arising from the emptiness and monotony of one's own interior, drives people towards one another; but their many repulsive properties and unbearable faults repel them again. "
art
In the literature, misanthropy was among others by the playwrights Menandros ( Dyskolos , German The Curmudgeon or The Misanthrope ), Shakespeare ( Timon of Athens , German Timon von Athen ), Molière ( Le Misanthrope , German Der misanthrope ) and Schiller ( The reconciled misanthropist ) treated, as well as by the satirist Lukian of Samosata ( Timon ). Thomas Bernhard's first novels , above all Frost and Disturbance , are deeply misanthropic in their basic features and considerations of the environment. The Norwegian author Matias Faldbakken published his Scandinavian Misantrophy Trilogy with his works Cocka Hola Company , Macht and Rebel and Unfun .
See also
literature
Overview representations
- René Bloch: Misanthropia. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Volume 24, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-7772-1222-7 , Sp. 828-845
- Hanns Huning: Misanthropy. In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy . Volume 5, Schwabe, Basel 1980, Sp. 1402-1408
Investigations
- Karim Akerma: Is humanity ebbing? Neganthropy and anthropodicy . Alber, Freiburg im Breisgau / Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3495479124 .
- Matt Cartmill: The Bambi Syndrome . Passion for hunting and misanthropy in cultural history . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-499-55566-2 .
- Friedrich-Karl Praetorius : travel book for the misanthropist. The joys of misanthropy . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-518-38703-0 .
- Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler , Martin Huber (Ed.): Instead of Bernhard. About misanthropy in the work of Thomas Bernhard . Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7046-0082-2 .
- Bernhard Sorg: The artist as a misanthropist. On the genealogy of an idea (= studies on German literary history , volume 51). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1989, ISBN 3-484-32051-6 (on misanthropy as a motif in Shakespeare , Molière , Thomas Bernhard , Friedrich Schiller and Arno Schmidt ).
- Friederike Wursthorn: The misanthrope in the literature of the Enlightenment . Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau / Berlin / Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-7930-9733-4 (also dissertation , University of Freiburg im Breisgau)
