The time in-between deadlines is usually spent in stupour. Now is perhaps the peak of stupour before the fuzziness gives way to another gush of adrenalin.
In the middle of the wool, a random thought crossed - why don't we have more female philosophers in the world? Apparently they are not very rare, a wikipedia search lists 93 women philosophers, the earliest being Leontion of the fourth century (Ayn Rand is not included...yesssss !). Even so,this is a minuscule percentage of male philosophers over the ages, considering that Wikipedia needs to classify the latter by demography, geography, religion, era, tradition and so on. Please do not include the many neo-cult, self-proclaimed, philosophers that go around hugging people, etc. in the list.
I cannot believe that gender discrimination plays a role . Philosophy is a field that is entirely individual-based, and no one can stop you from thinking, short of physically torturing you, and even physical torture has not stopped philosophers from their thoughts in the past. I certainly do not believe in intellectual inferiority of women to men. Certain fields had been closed to women due to a variety of reasons, some natural, others contrived, but philosophy is not one of them. In fact, women are very sincere with what they do - I should know that - I am yet to miss a deadline in ten years (touch wood!), nor have any of my colleagues (all women) given me a moment's stress, and this kind of sincerety does not come without conviction and dedication, both essential to philosophy.
I have heard (obviously from some men of philosophy) that the physical and associated emotional turmoil that women undergo (the estrogen-progesterone see-saw) precludes her from the "deep" thinking required for philosophy. This is built on shaky grounds. In most cultures, even at this day and age, or perhaps more so now, a woman shoulders enormous responsibilities. Her days are, as Calvin would claim, just packed. No where in her daily set of actions does the see-saw seem to make a debilitating difference. True, the moon can sometimes make her a tad more teary and in extreme cases, throw things around a bit. But those are rare enough to not freeze activity. Life goes on, mouths are fed, booboos kissed, deadlines met and so on. But perhaps it is the very packed days that make the woman disinclined to sit at one place and think thoughts deep enough to last more than a few minutes that she can usually spare; the few minutes being luxury much rather spent on a pick-me-up chai than profundity, that would perhaps give her a headache.
Or am I just basing this on my inclincation? When profound thoughts of existance and life loom, it takes less than a second to push it under the already overflowing carpet. Once the frontal cortex is cleared, banal and more practical thoughts of daily life take over giving me the comfort of routine wheel turning. I wonder if it is any different with other women. My grandmother, for example, spent her life doing things , taking care of running the household etc. from the the crack of dawn until the time she called it a day, and not once have I seen her sit down to "think". All the time, my retired grandfather (R.I.P.) would relax on his easy-chair, discussing politics, music, literature and more importantly philosophy with his other retired friends. But when I needed someone to advise me on life's lemons, it was my grandmother I ran to, and she always gave me (still does) practical and correct advise of eight decades. Yet, my grandfather is the one considered the "sage". Go back further in time. Yashodara was packing Rahula's lunch, dropping him off at his gurukula, taking care of the ageing Suddhodana and Mayadevi perhaps, and worrying about her own Suppabuddha and Pamitā, while making sure the servants have been paid their wages and so on. Buddha attained nirvana.
This train of thought leads to philosophy of life, such as, "why am I always on a hot coals, unable to sit and meditate on the nature of life" or "what is my purpose of existence". And true to my routine, I will course-correct and start lunch because stomachs (including the wannabe philosopher's) need food and if I don't, we'd probably eat out, and end up with e-coli that washed out an entire week for the household recently.
E-coli wins hands down.
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