Sex & character / by Otto Weininger. Authorised translation from the 6th German ed.

  • Weininger, Otto, 1880-1903.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sex & character / by Otto Weininger. Authorised translation from the 6th German ed. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    knowledge, nor is he a sceptic, for he doubts his own scepti- cism. On the other hand, a brooding care hovers over the non-metaphysical System of Avenarius, and even in Ernst Mach’s adherence to relativity there are signs of a deeply reverent attitude. The empiricists must not be accused of Judaism because they are shallow. The Jew is the impious man in the widest sense. Piety is not something near things nor outside things; it is the groundwork of everything. The Jew has been incorrectly called vulgär, simply because he does not concern himself with metaphysics. All true culture that comes from within, all that a man believes to be true and that so is true for him, depend on reverence. Reverence is not limited to the mystic or the religious man ; all Science and all scepticism, everything that a man truly believes, have reverence as the fundamental quality. Naturally it displays itself in dif- ferent ways, in high seriousness and sanctity, in earnestness and enthusiasm. The Jew is never either enthusiastic or indif- ferent, he is neither ecstatic nor cold. He reaches neither the heights nor the depths. His restraint becomes meagreness, his copiousness becomes bombast. Should he venture into the boundless realms of inspired thought, he seldom reaches beyond pathos. And although he cannot embrace the whole world, he is for ever covetous of it. Discrimination and generalisation, strength and love, Science and poetry, every real and deep emotion of the human heart, have reverence as their essential basis. It is not necessary that faith, as in men of genius, should be in relation only to metaphysical entity ; it can extend also to the empirical world and appear fully there, and yet none the less be faith in oneself, in worth, in truth, in the absolute, in God. As the comprehensive view of religion and piety that have given may lead to misconstruction, I propose to eluci- date it further. True piety is not merely the possession of piety, but also the struggle to possess it; it is found equally in the convinced believer in God (Handel or Rechner), and also in the doubting seeker (Lenau and Dürer); it need not