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theexternvoid
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29 Dec 2010, 10:06 am

What school of philosphy or what specific philosopher do you think fits aspies best?

For me, I personally am a big fan of Thoreau: his love of nature and a simple life, individualism, focusing on improving yourself rather than worrying about others, etc.

Although I don't know the Stoics, I saw a YouTube video of a guy discussing why the Stoics speak well to aspies. Indeed, my dad often called me a Stoic when I was a kid!



ruveyn
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29 Dec 2010, 10:52 am

theexternvoid wrote:
What school of philosphy or what specific philosopher do you think fits aspies best?

For me, I personally am a big fan of Thoreau: his love of nature and a simple life, individualism, focusing on improving yourself rather than worrying about others, etc.

Although I don't know the Stoics, I saw a YouTube video of a guy discussing why the Stoics speak well to aspies. Indeed, my dad often called me a Stoic when I was a kid!


David Hume



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01 Jan 2011, 6:28 pm

Wittgenstein, IMO, for 2 reasons;
1.) the way he thought/wrote about language & communication
2.) he was most likely aspie himself :D



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01 Jan 2011, 7:45 pm

I think I joked about Schopenhauer before.


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01 Jan 2011, 8:18 pm

Only clear thing that comes to mind is Western Analytic philosophy. That's only due to the rigid style of it. Frankly though, that's so broad that it really doesn't show anything but style. The honest truth though is that I think anything more specific will be difficult. There are a few philosophies that DON'T seem to work, but... otherwise the general high value of reason in many philosophies tends to make them more attractive to people with AS.

Would Stoicism work for aspies? Yes, it places a high value upon order and logic and reason above emotion, all of these fit into the AS cognitive style. I wouldn't be surprised though if some of the less talked about doctrines stood against us.

Thoreau probably would not work, he is individualistic, but he does not tend towards the AS love of order, nor the high reliance on reason over emotion. Rather, Thoreau is considered an American Transcendentalist, and they tend to be more oriented toward intuition, as opposed to reason and empirical data. They also tend to be a more religious philosophy in nature, while aspies probably are less religious on average, tending to like scientific and reductionist philosophies. This is not to say that Thoreau represents all transcendentalism, but, he does not tend towards the basic method of people with AS.

David Hume is an alright argument. The big issue is going to be whether an aspie will side with his theory of human sentiments as ethics, or with the more rationalistic Kantian or Utilitarian analyses. I think AS will tend more towards the latter. Even further, as a noted skeptic, Hume has tendencies that people with AS don't necessarily have. Some will be world-creators rather than critics. However, Hume, an Enlightenment figure, is probably a very good person.

Wittgenstein? I'd say early Wittgenstein at best. Wittgenstein has a lot of subjective and spiritual tendencies, and his later notion of language tended towards language as a social construct as opposed to language as a building block of meaning. Early Wittgenstein fits better into the early foundations of Western analytic philosophy though, and a lot of those figures will tend to have the rigidness necessary to match up.

Schopenhauer, like Kant, has some very autistic traits. This does not mean he matches up well with autistics. He has a lot of tendencies that do not seem to match as well.



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01 Jan 2011, 8:37 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
David Hume is an alright argument. The big issue is going to be whether an aspie will side with his theory of human sentiments as ethics, or with the more rationalistic Kantian or Utilitarian analyses. I think AS will tend more towards the latter. Even further, as a noted skeptic, Hume has tendencies that people with AS don't necessarily have. Some will be world-creators rather than critics. However, Hume, an Enlightenment figure, is probably a very good person.



Hume's views on causation are very congruent with the legendary literal-mindedness of Aspies. Which is why I suggested Hume in the first place.

ruveyn



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01 Jan 2011, 8:39 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Awesomelyglorious wrote:
David Hume is an alright argument. The big issue is going to be whether an aspie will side with his theory of human sentiments as ethics, or with the more rationalistic Kantian or Utilitarian analyses. I think AS will tend more towards the latter. Even further, as a noted skeptic, Hume has tendencies that people with AS don't necessarily have. Some will be world-creators rather than critics. However, Hume, an Enlightenment figure, is probably a very good person.



Hume's views on causation are very congruent with the legendary literal-mindedness of Aspies. Which is why I suggested Hume in the first place.

ruveyn

And his bundle-theory of perception is also congruent. As well, his notion of the sentiments fits in with Adam Smith's and Adam Smith is sometimes believed to have had AS.



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01 Jan 2011, 8:41 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
And his bundle-theory of perception is also congruent. As well, his notion of the sentiments fits in with Adam Smith's and Adam Smith is sometimes believed to have had AS.


Contrast Hume with Kant. Kant's metaphysical and epistemological views are very much for the NTs. Although his moral views are quite rule based -- the categorical imperative, for example

ruveyn



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01 Jan 2011, 9:45 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Contrast Hume with Kant. Kant's metaphysical and epistemological views are very much for the NTs. Although his moral views are quite rule based -- the categorical imperative, for example

ruveyn

Actually, for Kant we have a much better reason to think he had AS than most other philosophers in history. The man was so rigid people could set their clocks by him. His moral views are pretty good for people with AS. I would tend to agree that the various forms of Idealism do not seem very weighted towards people with AS, simply due to the large role of subjectivity in such notions.



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03 Jan 2011, 1:55 am

I'd say Carl Gustav Jung, but I think he's good for anybody, not just aspies.



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03 Jan 2011, 2:30 am

ruveyn
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03 Jan 2011, 12:37 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Contrast Hume with Kant. Kant's metaphysical and epistemological views are very much for the NTs. Although his moral views are quite rule based -- the categorical imperative, for example

ruveyn

Actually, for Kant we have a much better reason to think he had AS than most other philosophers in history. The man was so rigid people could set their clocks by him. His moral views are pretty good for people with AS. I would tend to agree that the various forms of Idealism do not seem very weighted towards people with AS, simply due to the large role of subjectivity in such notions.


Kant might have been exhibiting OCD.

All the biographies I have read on Kant indicate that he was a very sociable person. He liked to go to parties and he played cards a lot.

ruveyn



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03 Jan 2011, 1:20 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Awesomelyglorious wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Contrast Hume with Kant. Kant's metaphysical and epistemological views are very much for the NTs. Although his moral views are quite rule based -- the categorical imperative, for example

ruveyn

Actually, for Kant we have a much better reason to think he had AS than most other philosophers in history. The man was so rigid people could set their clocks by him. His moral views are pretty good for people with AS. I would tend to agree that the various forms of Idealism do not seem very weighted towards people with AS, simply due to the large role of subjectivity in such notions.


Kant might have been exhibiting OCD.

All the biographies I have read on Kant indicate that he was a very sociable person. He liked to go to parties and he played cards a lot.

ruveyn

Also true, a person with OCD could have had that happen.

I've never read a biography on Kant honestly.



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03 Jan 2011, 9:40 pm

I feel like Hume is the best bet for Aspies. The best solution is a skeptical one! It also lies a bit along the stoic principles, but with less ridiculous conclusions.
Even Kant couldn't disprove Hume, though he gave it an extremely good try.
(And yes, Kant was a celebrity in his later years and felt very keenly how he was perceived, as is evinced by his Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics....)



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06 Jan 2011, 5:00 am

I'm not sure what type of philosophy we're talking about.
I'm most well-versed in ethics, so I'll answer accordingly. :lol:

I'm an ethical utilitarian, and I take many cues from Bentham and Peter Singer.


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06 Jan 2011, 5:04 am

I've never found a philosophy that I don't find something to disagree with, so I just stitch mine together as I go along. I consider this a very Aspie thing to do, since I hear we don't care for authority.


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