The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization: Translated from the Sixth German EditionBloch, Iwan
Philosophy
The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization: Translated from the Sixth German Edition
Bloch, Iwan
Sex; Sexual ethics
In the novel “Es Geht An” Almquist advocates the thesis that true love
needs no consecration by a marriage ceremony. On the contrary, a
ceremony of this kind belies the very nature of marriage, for it forms
and cements false unions; and any relationship concluded on the lowest
grounds, if it has only been preceded by a marriage ceremony, is
regarded as pure, whilst a union based upon true love without marriage
is regarded as unchaste. In the sense of free love Lara Widbeck, in “Es
Geht An,” arranges her own life and that of her husband Albert. Both are
to be masters of their respective persons and of their respective
property; they are to live for themselves, the work of each is to be
pursued independently of the other, and in this way it will be possible
to preserve a lifelong love, instead of seeing love transformed into
lifelong indifference or hate.
Even at the present day in Sweden the idea of free love is known, after
this romance of Almquist’s, as the “Es-geht-an idea” and also as
“briar-rose morality.” It was, above all, Ellen Key who revived
Almquist’s idea, and enlarged it to the extensive programme of marriage
reform in the direction of free love, which we shall consider more fully
below.
In his last writings Schopenhauer occupied himself at considerable
length with the problems of love, but entirely from the standpoint of
misogyny and of duplex sexual morality. Still, he recognized the great
dangers and disasters which the traditional coercive marriage entails
upon society, and rightly regarded this formal marriage as the principal
source of sexual corruption.
In his essay “Concerning Women” (“Parerga and Paralipomena,” vol. xi.,
pp. 657-659), ed. Grisebach, he writes:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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