Misanthropy
The title of this article is ambiguous. See also Misanthrope.
This article or subsequent section is not sufficiently supported by evidence (e.g., anecdotal evidence). Information without sufficient evidence may be removed in the near future. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and adding good supporting evidence.
Misanthropy (from ancient Greek μισεῖν miseín "to hate, to reject" and ἄνθρωπος ánthrōpos "human being") or misanthropy is the view of a person who hates people or dislikes their proximity. Such a person is called a misanthrope ("man-hater, misanthrope").
The Misanthrope (painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, c. 1568)
Conceptual delimitation
Misanthropy characterizes a state of mind, not a way of acting. A misanthrope does not have to be violent, aggressive or arrogant, altruistic action is not excluded. Misanthropy, despite its etymological appearance, is not conceptually opposed to the related term philanthropy, which is generally used to describe a person's manner of acting rather than his attitude. In extreme cases of disgust with man, the misanthrope segregates himself and leads a reclusive existence. This self-imposed isolation is to be distinguished from pathological misanthropy, in which closeness to the surrounding human community cannot be achieved despite the desire for it.
Philosophy
Immanuel Kant condemned misanthropy in his General Note on the Exposition of Aesthetic Reflective Judgments:
"Against this is to flee people, out of misanthropy, because one hates them, or out of anthropophobia (man-phobia), because one fears them as one's enemies, partly ugly, partly contemptible."
Arthur Schopenhauer more often expressed himself in misanthropic terms, such as in the porcupine parable:
"Thus the need of society, springing from the emptiness and monotony of one's own interior, drives men to each other; but their many odious qualities and intolerable faults repel them from each other again."
