Philosophers and Marriage

Why do Philosophers Not Get Married?

I took an introductory class to Western philosophy last year. I did some research on the personal lives of some famous philosophers.

• Immanuel Kant – Never married.
• Friedrich Nietzsche – Never married.
• René Descartes – Never married. Illegitimate daughter.
• David Hume – Never married.
• John Locke – Never married.
• Thomas Aquinas – Never married.
• Gottfried Leibniz – Never married.
• Baruch Spinoza – Never married.
• Jean-Paul Sartre – Never married.
• Arthur Schopenhauer – Never married. “Marrying means, to grasp blindfold into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes.” (Kinky guy, apparently.)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Never married. Illegitimate children.

On the other side:

• John Stuart Mill - married Harriet Taylor after 21 years of an intimate friendship.
• Hegel - married Marie Helena Susanna von Tucher
• Francis Bacon - married Alice Barnham

Prominent scientists were not spared:

• Isaac Newton – Never married.
• Gottfried Leibniz – Never married.
• Alfred Nobel – Never married.
• Einstein - Married cousin!?

These are some of the biggest rock stars of the Western world, and some of the smartest people to ever live. Although a few were religious figures and were not allowed to marry, why didn’t those who could, do so and continue their legacy? Did their intelligence allow them to figure out something about life that most of us haven’t?

Yes, I’ve read the articles about the positive correlation between intelligence and social ineptitude, lack of friends, depression, and generally everything bad about life. But even all of that can’t cause you not to have a special someone. These guys were bigshots. They made the choice not to get married. Were there no women up to their standards? No time for mushy relationship stuff? Wait, I got it. They chose abstinence because they couldn’t practice safe sex since contraception had not been invented. Either that, or I give up.