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
It is a misfortune of the scientific psychology of the day that it has
been influenced so deeply by two physicists, Fechner and von Helmholtz,
with the result that it has failed to recognise that only the external
and not the internal world can be reconstructed from sensations. The two
most intelligent of the empirical psychologists of recent times, William
James and R. Avenarius, have felt almost instinctively that psychology
cannot really rest upon sensations of the skin and muscles, although,
indeed, all modern psychology does depend upon study of sensations.
Dilthey did not lay enough stress on his argument that existing
psychology does nothing towards problems that are eminently
psychological, such as murder, friendship, loneliness, and so forth. If
anything is to be gained in the future there must be a demand for a
really psychological psychology, and its first battle-cry must be: “Away
with the study of sensations.”
In attempting the broad and deep characterology that I have indicated, I
must set out with a conception of character itself as a unit existence.
As in the fifth chapter of Part I., I tried to show that behind the
fleeting physiological changes there is a permanent morphological form,
so in characterology we must seek the permanent, existing something
through the fleeting changes.
The character, however, is not something seated behind the thoughts and
feelings of the individual, but something revealing itself in every
thought and feeling. “All that a man does is physiognomical of him.”
Just as every cell bears within it the characters of the whole
individual, so every psychical manifestation of a man involves not
merely a few little characteristic traits, but his whole being, of which
at one moment one quality, at another moment another quality, comes into
prominence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account