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
The most decisive proof for the correctness of the view that attributes
henids to woman and differentiated thoughts to man, and that sees in
this a fundamental sexual distinction, lies in the fact that wherever a
new judgment is to be made, (not merely something already settled to be
put into proverbial form) it is always the case that the female expects
from man the clarification of her data, the interpretation of her
henids. It is almost a tertiary sexual character of the male, and
certainly it acts on the female as such, that she expects from him the
interpretation and illumination of her thoughts. It is from this reason
that so many girls say that they could only marry, or, at least, only
love a man who was cleverer than themselves; that they would be
repelled by a man who said that all they thought was right, and did not
know better than they did. In short, the woman makes it a criterion of
manliness that the man should be superior to herself mentally, that she
should be influenced and dominated by the man; and this in itself is
enough to ridicule all ideas of sexual equality.
The male lives consciously, the female lives unconsciously. This is
certainly the necessary conclusion for the extreme cases. The woman
receives her consciousness from the man; the function to bring into
consciousness what was outside it is a sexual function of the typical
man with regard to the typical woman, and is a necessary part of his
ideal completeness.
And now we are brought up against the problem of talent; the whole
modern woman question appears to be resolving itself into a dispute as
to whether men or women are more highly gifted. As the question is
generally propounded there is no attempt to distinguish between the pure
types of sex; the conclusions with regard to these that I have been able
to set forth have an important bearing on the answer to the question.
CHAPTER IV
TALENT AND GENIUS
There has been so much written about the nature of genius that, to avoid
misunderstanding, it will be better to make a few general remarks before
going into the subject.
And the first thing to do is to settle the question of talent. Genius
and talent are nearly always connected in the popular idea, as if the
first were a higher, or the highest, grade of the latter, and as if a
man of very high and varied talents might be a sort of intermediate
between the two. This view is entirely erroneous. Even if there were
different degrees or grades of genius, they would have absolutely
nothing to do with so-called “talent.” A talent, for instance the
mathematical talent, may be possessed by some one in a very high degree
from birth; and he will be able to master the most difficult problems of
that science with ease; but for this he will require no genius, which is
the same as originality, individuality, and a condition of general
productiveness.
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