The Loneliness of Philosophy

Here is a really interesting comment on my facebook page from a philosopher friend:

For me, philosophy brings a certain kind of loneliness. Or it could just be me. certainly makes it hard to…”join in”…in so many situations – you know, the ones where you’re faced with some irrational, possibly even offensive, customary ritual or institution whose folly could be exposed in a few reasoned statements.

I have changed over the years (after all, I don’t believe in the continuous “I”), such that I am very different in very many ways from the man I was fifteen years ago. I am far more philosophical than I was, and far more analytical and rational. I don’t mean this in a condescending “I’m rational and you’re not” sort of way, but in a way that I analyse the rationality of anything anyone ever says on TV or in my company.

I used to be, and still am to a degree, the gag-cracking social creature with a very outgoing personality ready to make fun where fun was to be made.

Now, I appear to prefer a hardcore debate about psychology, politics or religion.

In other words, I am probably a lot more boring than I used to be. That’s the price I have had to pay for being obsessed with philosophy and debating and arguing the toss over everything.

So, my philosophically inclined readers, is this something that you have experienced? Has obsessing over philosophy caused you to lose touch with some aspects of your psychology/personality/humanity?

Is it a lonely place to be, sat on the internet, banging away at the keyboard? (Hey, I’ve got YOU guys, right?)