Becoming Philosopher Queen

An Archetype for the Apocalypse

If I could decide who I'd become at the age of 94, I want to be the hip granny that people come to for advice on how to live. I want to sit in my Kiez's (hood’s) green agora, reading one of the then cutting-edge philosophers, while people stop by to chat about their lives. We don't talk about me. We talk about them. I make some good jokes in between and after they have found better questions for whatever bothered them, they leave lighthearted. I'd be a philosopher queen, my empire would be an anti-fragile ecosystem and my laws would be questions.

I have been craving an archetype that I can identify with. What I was most drawn to was the sage paired with the trickster. Someone who is wise and maybe even enlightened while being playful about this "ridiculous" existence. However, what I missed from these archetypes is the female energy, the allure, the erotic.

The philosopher queen fuses qualities of the witch, priestess, trickster, and sage. She allures. She is untamed, uncontained. She communicates with humans and non-humans alike. Her skills are mental and practical and while she connects, translates and bridges the physical and the metaphysical, she also takes it with a grain of salt. Picture the philosopher queen as someone akin to Rachel Haywire's concept of "What if Harley Quinn had intelligent dialogue?

Unlike the philosopher king, who is often (mis)understood as an authoritarian, the philosopher queen is one among many. She doesn't rule alone but operates as a holon - a whole with boundaries that separate and connect her to the environment - that is in dialogue among other relatively autonomous embedded holons, whether they are humans, non-humans, landscapes or materials. The ultimate holarchy being the planet (or the universe) itself. She is not a ruler of an ideal empire but takes responsibility and thoughtful action for her ecosystem - be it her body, a home, a company, a garden, a community, a city, or a nation-state. Just like every other philosopher queen does.

Becoming a philosopher queen is something I can desire, an ambition, an idea that I actually find appealing. I don't know what else to desire or what else to be ambitious towards to. Many of the common ambitions of a house, family, prestigious job, having a career are all worthwhile and some of them even excite me, yet they don't inspire me.

A real philosopher queen can only come out of practical wisdom - knowledge as much as embodied experience. In Aristotle's terms, practical wisdom (phrónēsis) is the capacity for making decisions and taking action about practical issues that matter to people's lives. It differs from the capacity to produce things (téchnē) or to generate and work with abstract thoughts (epistème).

The philosopher queen pairs practical wisdom with raw beauty. As Rachel Haywire says, "Self-care-as-industry is on its way out, and the raw energy of Kali is coming back to play. Running with the wolves, confident and powerful, we seek a restoration of our own divinity."

To become a philosopher queen, I need to cultivate practical wisdom. But how do I do that? There is no school to learn this, no master or PhD program I can join to get me there. Academia is a place of epistème, but not of practical wisdom. Unfortunately, there are no institutionalized systems that help us to become practically wise. So, can we integrate the search for and teaching of practical wisdom into institutions? Could it become an integral part of my studies? What would that entail?

I've previously mentioned the concept of philosophy-gyms, or perhaps lifestyle-gyms are a more fitting term. Philosophy, as I understand it, is a tool for exploring "how to live." It would be a place of praxis, where individuals engage in actions that change the material conditions of society, embracing philosophy as a revolutionary force - as the poet, producer and professor Nathan Dufoir explains in his Ecosophy course (which I highly recommend).

Just as there are universities of applied science (such as the one I am working at), I wish there were universities of applied philosophy focused on helping people become the person they aspire to be - such as a philosopher queens. These universities would emphasize practices like dialogue, reflection, studying classics, meditation, and concrete revolutionary socialecological actions. Instead of solely concentrating on WHAT a person wants to achieve, these universities would also consider WHO the person is while doing that. If you're interested in this idea, please reach out, and perhaps we can practice making a university together.

🐒 Something fascinating about other beings

Electric eels are not actually eels but a type of knifefish. They can generate electric shocks of up to 600 volts to navigate, locate prey, and defend themselves. Their electric organs make up approximately 80% of their bodies.

📚 A book I recommend

For the German speakers: Weisheit by Gert Scobel in which he advocates for having a “wisdom council” as an advisory board for German politics.

💌 A quote

“Criticize by creating” Michelangelo

✍️ A journal prompt

Who do you want to become? Does what you do at the moment align with your desire of becoming that?