Just as there is a Laughing Philosopher (Democritus) and a Weeping Philosopher (Heraclitus), let there also be a Philosophizing Philosopher, which title goes to Nietzsche.
What exactly do I mean by that? There is a long-standing tradition among the Russian intellectuals, which has earned them the very special untranslatable name Intelligent, to take deep philosophical issues close to heart and make a sort of life quest of them. The best word to describe this honorable activity is “philosophizing.” All Russian writers of note have traditionally been philosophizers. So have been artists, scientists, religious figures, engineers, and social activists in all walks of life. So have also been many blue-collar workers and peasants. In fact, no Russian man or woman can gain respectability in the society without proving himself or herself as a philosophizer to reckon with. (Here is a very good hint for today’s Russian nouveau-riche. None of his breed can be respected automatically: just for being rich and prosperous. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Wealth alone is sure to earn nothing but disdain, unless its owner is also in possession of the natural Russian propensity for philosophizing, which, of course, must be out there, for everybody to see.)
Now, what is the difference between a philosopher and a philosophizer? In my usage, for the purposes of this entry, a philosopher is a professional who is adept in the specific philosophical lingo which is easily recognizable as deliberately esoteric and largely incomprehensible. In fact, such professional philosophers take pride in their belonging to a restricted club, where only the initiated are supposed to comprehend each other’s parlance. Needless to say, all of them are miserable writers, compensating for their lack of literary ability by being professionally incomprehensible.
A philosophizer, on the other hand, tackles philosophical issues outside the professional club, using normal language and making himself comprehensible to fellow philosophizers. Professional philosophers will argue that his level is not deep enough and will call him derisively “an amateur.” And here I shall point them to an example of brilliant philosophizing by a philosopher--ecce Nietzsche!
No one would dare doubting Nietzsche’s philosophical depth. No one would dare denying him the status of professional philosopher, but at the same time he is coming across as a writer-philosophizer, and to Russian philosophizers he is a fellow philosophizer, a Russian Intelligent par excellence. This should explain to the reader why the Russian Intelligents are in love with Nietzsche’s kindred spirit, as well as my own seemingly inordinate preoccupation with him.
What exactly do I mean by that? There is a long-standing tradition among the Russian intellectuals, which has earned them the very special untranslatable name Intelligent, to take deep philosophical issues close to heart and make a sort of life quest of them. The best word to describe this honorable activity is “philosophizing.” All Russian writers of note have traditionally been philosophizers. So have been artists, scientists, religious figures, engineers, and social activists in all walks of life. So have also been many blue-collar workers and peasants. In fact, no Russian man or woman can gain respectability in the society without proving himself or herself as a philosophizer to reckon with. (Here is a very good hint for today’s Russian nouveau-riche. None of his breed can be respected automatically: just for being rich and prosperous. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Wealth alone is sure to earn nothing but disdain, unless its owner is also in possession of the natural Russian propensity for philosophizing, which, of course, must be out there, for everybody to see.)
Now, what is the difference between a philosopher and a philosophizer? In my usage, for the purposes of this entry, a philosopher is a professional who is adept in the specific philosophical lingo which is easily recognizable as deliberately esoteric and largely incomprehensible. In fact, such professional philosophers take pride in their belonging to a restricted club, where only the initiated are supposed to comprehend each other’s parlance. Needless to say, all of them are miserable writers, compensating for their lack of literary ability by being professionally incomprehensible.
A philosophizer, on the other hand, tackles philosophical issues outside the professional club, using normal language and making himself comprehensible to fellow philosophizers. Professional philosophers will argue that his level is not deep enough and will call him derisively “an amateur.” And here I shall point them to an example of brilliant philosophizing by a philosopher--ecce Nietzsche!
No one would dare doubting Nietzsche’s philosophical depth. No one would dare denying him the status of professional philosopher, but at the same time he is coming across as a writer-philosophizer, and to Russian philosophizers he is a fellow philosophizer, a Russian Intelligent par excellence. This should explain to the reader why the Russian Intelligents are in love with Nietzsche’s kindred spirit, as well as my own seemingly inordinate preoccupation with him.
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