Just want to emphasize the context.
The most important thing for him to know, according to him, is: how ought he live?
This is the core question related to morals, morals generally being rules for how one relates to other people.
When you suggest and others have suggested certain practical moves out of the hole, he makes it seem like there are no options for love. Then one wonders what important answers he needs around how to live - something you may be getting at when you mention the hermit.
He does not like being in his hole but is not willing to take practical research validated steps to move out from the hole. He is also cut off it seems from any person to potentially love - even though people do develop great affection over the internet and Skype is probably an option even if he is bedridden. Certainly contact over the internet is possible, given the number of posts we are looking at.
He could takes steps to minimize the harsh emotional aspects of the hole AND maintain his interest in solving the issue of conflicting goods. These two processes are not mutually exclusive.
Unless he has the intuition that they are, for him.
That he might lose interest in presenting this issue if he had a social life. At least it seems like he is claiming he does not have one.
And suddenly it seems like an issue of self-care conflated with, yes, a real philosophical conundrum. And that actually hits me as sad this time.
Enjoy the hole. I understood when you said that to him.
But maybe enjoy is not quite the right word.
I would guess most of us could come up with things that hurt us that we cling to for a variety of reasons, where even feeling better seems like some betrayal of an ideal or a giving in. I really don’t know.
It comes off as a rejection of life.
I don’t really believe in objective morals. I do find that I am a kind of social mammal. Some social mammals will rescue injured or trapped animals of other species. I don’t think they are objectivists.
But what do you do when the trapped animal want to remain stuck in the mudhole? And not only that, accuses all comers as being too abstract. Might be time to pull back your trunk and stop trying to help.