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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    be made obvious to the world (as in the case of Bach), it may display itself only in a reverent attitude (Mozart). Nor is piety necessarily connected with the appearance of a Founder ; the ancient Greeks were the most reverent people that have lived, and hence their culture was highest; but their religion had no personal Founder. Religion is the creation of the all; and all that humanity can be is only through religion. So far from the Jew being religious, as has been assumed, he is profoundly irreligious. Were there need to elaborate my verdict on the Jews I might point out that the Jews, alone of peoples, do not try to make converts to their faith, and that when converts are made they serve as objects of puzzled ridicule to them. Need I refer to the meaningless formality and the repetitions of Jewish prayer ? Need I remind readers that the Jewish religion is a mere historical tradition, a memorial of such incidents as the miraculous Crossing of the Red Sea, with the consequent thanks of cowards to their Saviour; and that it is no guide to the meaning and conduct of life ? The Jew is truly irreligious and furthest of mankind from faith. There is no relation between the Jew himself and the universe ; he has none of the heroism of faith, just as he has none of the disaster of absolute unbelief. It is not, then, mysticism that the Jew is without, as Chamberlain maintains, but reverence. If he were only an honest-minded materialist or a frank evolutionist ! He is not a critic, but only critical; he is not a sceptic in the Cartesian sense, not a doubter who sets out from doubt towards truth, but an ironist; as, for instance, to take a conspicuous example, Heine. What, then, is the Jew if he is nothing that a man can be ? What goes on within him if he is utterly without finality, if there is no ground in him which the plumb line of psychology may reach ? The psychological contents of the Jewish mind arealways double or multiple. There are always before him two or many possibilities, where the Aryan, although he sees as widely, feels himself limited in his choice. I think that the