Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
“Nec certam sedem, nec propriam faciem, nec munus ullum peculiare tibi
dedimus, O Adam: ut quam sedem, quam faciem, quae munera tute optaveris,
ea pro voto, pro tua sententia, habeas et possideas. Definita caeteris
natura intra praescriptas a nobis leges coercetur; tu nullis angustiis
coercitus, pro tuo arbitrio, in cuius manu te posui, tibi illam
praefinies. Medium te mundi posui, ut circumspiceres inde commodius
quicquid est in mundo. Nec te caelestem, neque terrenum, neque mortalem,
neque immortalem fecimus, ut tui ipsius quasi arbitrarius honorariusque
plastes et fictor in quam malueris tute formam effingas. Poteris in
inferiora quae sunt bruta degenerare, poteris in superiora quae sunt
divina, ex tui animi sententia regenerari.
O summam Dei Patris liberalitatem, summam et admirandam hominis
felicitatem: cui datum id habere quod optat, id esse quod velit. Bruta
simul atque nascuntur id secum afferunt e bulga matris, quod possessura
sunt. Supremi spiritus aut ab initio aut paulo mox id fuerunt, quod sunt
futuri in perpetuas aeternitates. _Nascenti homini omniferaria semina et
omnigenae vitae germina indidit Pater_; quae quisque excoluerit, illa
adolescent et fructus suos ferent in illo: si vegetalia, planta fiet,
si sensualia, obbrutescet, si rationalia, caeleste evadet animal, si
intellectualia, angelus erit et Dei filius. _Et si nulla creaturarum
sorte contentus in unitatis centrum suac se receperit, unus cum Deo
spiritus factus, in solitaria Patris caligine qui est super omnia
constitutus omnibus antestabit”._
CHAPTER IX
MALE AND FEMALE PSYCHOLOGY
It is now time to return to the actual subject of this investigation in
order to see how far its explanation has been helped by the lengthy
digressions, which must often have seemed wide of the mark.
The consequences of the fundamental principles that have been developed
are of such radical importance to the psychology of the sexes that, even
if the former deductions have been assented to, the present conclusions
may find no acceptance. This is not the place to analyse such a
possibility; but in order to protect the theory I am now going to set
up, from all objections, I shall fully substantiate it in the fullest
possible manner by convincing arguments.
Shortly speaking the matter stands as follows: I have shown that logical
and ethical phenomena come together in the conception of truth as the
ultimate good, and posit the existence of an intelligible ego or a soul,
as a form of being of the highest super-empirical reality. In such a
being as the absolute female there are no logical and ethical phenomena,
and, therefore, the ground for the assumption of a soul is absent. The
absolute female knows neither the logical nor the moral imperative, and
the words law and duty, duty towards herself, are words which are least
familiar to her. The inference that she is wanting in supersensual
personality is fully justified. The absolute female has no ego.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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