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
[17] The association of these two desires may surprise readers. It
rests on a metaphysical ground, much of which will be more apparent
when I have developed my theory of eroticism further. Time, like
space, is conceived of as unlimited, and man, in his desire for
freedom, in his efforts stimulated by his power of free will to
transcend his limits, has the craving for unlimited time and unlimited
space. The desire for travel is simply an expression of this
restlessness, this fundamental chafing of the spirit against its
bonds. But just as eternity is not prolonged time, but the negation of
time, so however far a man wanders, he can extend his area but cannot
abolish space. And so his efforts to transcend space must always be
heroic failures: I shall show that his eroticism is a similar notable
failure.
As for Schopenhauer, he had just as little idea of the higher form of
eroticism; his sexuality was of the gross order. This can be seen from
the following: Schopenhauer’s countenance shows very little kindliness
and a good deal of fierceness (a circumstance which must have caused him
great sorrow. There is no exhibition of ethical sympathy if one is very
sorry for oneself. The most sympathetic persons are those who, like Kant
and Nietzsche, have no particle of self-pity).
But it may be said with safety that only those who are most sympathetic
are capable of a strong passion: those “who take no interest in things”
are incapable of love. This does not imply that they have diabolical
natures. They may, on the contrary, stand very high morally without
knowing what their neighbours are thinking or doing, and without having
a sense for other than sexual relations with women, as was the case with
Schopenhauer. He was a man who knew only too well what the sexual
impulse was, but he never was in love; if that were not so, the bias in
his famous work, “The Metaphysics of Sexual Love,” would be
inexplicable; in it the most important doctrine is that the unconscious
goal of all love is nothing more than “the formation of the next
generation.”
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