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Schopenhauer on being alone and how to deal with society:
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▶ SCHOPENHAUER'S WORKS:
Parerga and Paralipomena vol. 1: [ Ссылка ]
Parerga and Paralipomena vol. 2: [ Ссылка ]
The World as Will and Representation vol. 1: [ Ссылка ]
The World as Will and Representation vol. 2: [ Ссылка ]

The hedgehog dilemma is a metaphor for the difficulty of human relationships.

(Schopenhauer’s original is about porcupines, not hedgehogs; Freud seems to have popularised hedgehogs when paraphrasing Schopenhauer in his own works.)

On a cold winter’s day, two hedgehogs cuddle close together for warm. But soon their spikes hurt the other. So they separate again. But then the cold forces them back together, and of course they end up hurting each other again.

So the hedgehogs ultimately find an equilibrium: far enough to not be hurt by spikes, close enough to be somewhat warm. A compromise that leaves them unsatisfied, but it’s better than nothing.

Schopenhauer argues that it’s better to be alone, to be your own source of warmth. While also realising that such is not possible for the vast majority of people: humans are social animals. So he advises us to ‘keep our distance’ (he even uses the English expression.)

The video goes a step further by thinking about a possible Nietzschean perspective: seeking intimacy and friendship, knowing full well that hurt might result.
We can view the hedgehog’s dilemma as something more than a simple metaphor for human relationships. It’s a litmus test on how a person views life: full of suffering yes, but does that mean we should run from it, or embrace it? In this way it lays bare the biggest difference between Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

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