For amusement


Now I know most of the frequent readers and contributors to this site are not fans of philosophy, that is, the play of words as it has been adeptly described, but that my friends will not stop us from time to time sharing philosophical musings.

Here Schopenhauer is talking about love or rather here specifically sexual relationship, if I can call it that. He writes

First of all we have to remark here that by nature man is inclined to inconstancy in love, woman to constancy. The love of the man sinks perceptibly from the moment it has obtained satisfaction; almost every other woman charms him more than the one he already possesses; he longs for variety.  The love of the woman, on the other hand, increases just from that moment. This is a consequence of the aim of nature which is directed to the maintenance, and therefore to the greatest possible increase, of the species.  The man can easily beget over a hundred children a year, the woman, on the contrary, with however many men, can only bring one child a year into the world. Therefore the man always looks about after other women,  the woman, again, sticks firmly to the one man; for nature moves her, instinctively and without reflection, to retain the nourisher and protector of the future offspring.
Accordingly faithfulness in marriage is with the man artificial, with the woman it is natural.

In his book, the monogamy myth, David Barash looks at extra pair copulation among animals and reports it is prevalent in almost all species. He reports that among birds, when and if a bird pairs with a different male, it does so secretly so as not to jeopardise the relationship with the regular male.

About makagutu

As Onyango Makagutu I am Kenyan, as far as I am a man, I am a citizen of the world

56 thoughts on “For amusement

  1. Birth control has changed all that, as well as women’s empowerment. Women have just as much of a sex drive as men. Therefore, the women can also look about after other men.

    Quote: “Women want sex just as much as men do, and this drive is “not, for the most part, sparked or sustained by emotional intimacy and safety.” When it comes to the craving for sexual variety, the research Bergner assembles suggests that women may be “even less well-suited for monogamy than men.”

    http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/06/turns-out-women-have-really-really-strong-sex-drives-can-men-handle-it/276598/

    Liked by 4 people

  2. Hariod Brawn says:

    Remember OM, you’re only 30 seconds away from total disinterest. 😉

    Liked by 1 person

  3. As Boris Karloff once said to Bela Lugosi, “Women want sex just as much as men, Bela. They’re just not as monstrously piggish about expressing it as we are.”

    Liked by 2 people

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