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
But a great deal of what is taken for enmity to emancipation is due to
the want of confidence in its possibility. Man does not really want
woman as a slave: he is usually only too anxious for a companion. The
education which the woman of the present day receives is not calculated
to fit her for the battle against her real bondage. The last resource of
her “womanly” teacher, if she declines to do this or that, is to say
that no man will have her unless she does it. Women’s education is
directed solely to preparing them for their marriage, the happy state in
which they are to find their crown. Such training would have little
effect on man, but it serves to accentuate woman’s womanishness, her
dependence, and her servile condition. The education of woman must be
taken out of the hands of woman; the education of mankind must be taken
out of the hands of the mother. This is the first step towards placing
woman in a relation to the idea of mankind, which since the beginning
she has done more than anything else to hinder.
* * * * *
A woman who had really given up her sexual self, who wished to be at
peace would be no longer “woman.” She would have ceased to be “woman,”
she would have received the inward and spiritual sign as well as the
outward form of regeneration.
Can such a thing be?
There is no absolute woman, but even so to say “yes” to the above
question is like giving one’s assent to a miracle. Emancipation will not
make woman happier; it will not ensure her salvation, and it is a long
road which leads to God. No being in the transition stage between
freedom and slavery can be happy. But will woman choose to abandon
slavery in order to become unhappy? The question is not merely if it be
possible for woman to become moral. It is this: is it possible for
woman really to wish to realise the problem of existence, the conception
of guilt? Can she really desire freedom? This can happen only by her
being penetrated by an ideal, brought to the guiding star. It can happen
only if the categorical imperative were to become active in woman; only
if woman can place herself in relation to the moral idea, the idea of
humanity.
In that way only can there be an emancipation of woman.
INDEX
Æsthetics and Erotics, Chap. XI., 236-251
Affinity, sexual, compared with chemical, 41
Ahriman, 183
Alcmæon, of Kroton, 81
Alexander the Great, 229
Amphibia, hermaphroditism, 22
Anæsthesia, sexual, 274
Anatomical distinctions of the sexes, 3
Anatomy, as guide to sexuality, 3, 4
Animals, women and the sexual union of, 257
Angelo, M., 105
Anti-Christ, 183
Antisemitism, 303, 304, 312
Apprehension, 116
Architecture, 119
Aristotle, 18, 140, 187, 293
Arrhenoplasm, Chap. II., 11-25
Aryans, 302
Asceticism, 329, 336, 347
Attraction, between the sexes, 26, 27
Autobiography, 122
Avenarius, 31, 82, 94, 100, 128, 144, 322
Bach, 103, 323
Bachelors, and women, 258
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