No More Learning

In view of the strong grip conventional ideas had upon
their minds, one would have thought Europeans by and large
would have been obedient to the existing social order, and yet
this was far from the case. Dating back to the great revolu-
tion of 1848, unrest continually resurged and broke out again
and again in wars between the European countries.
In this society, which was being torn apart by stresses and
strains, only the natural sciences exercised vital force in creat-
ing a new viewpoint. In the wake of the natural sciences fol-
lowed a trend within philosophy, positivism, which came
to the fore mainly because of the enormous advances made by
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? ^6 City by the River
scientific research since the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury. When scientific research expanded human knowledge,
its results made themselves felt at the universities, leading to
more stress on the practical rather than on the theoretical re-
sults of scientific investigation. Purely theoretical knowledge
was not enough. It was thought that if a true concept of the
world was ever to be attained, it could be reached only on the
basis of empiric knowledge.
' In this choir of philosophical voices, one could hear above
all others the loud voice of Nietzsche. This contradictory man,
in his yearning for new ideals, thought he had found the truth
about mankind, a truth brought forth in his own anguish and
terror, in his own despair and hopelessness. Nietzsche set the
philosophical and moral tone of the end of the past century--
a tone colored with Wagner's bombastic romanticism. By
many, as by the Nazis in later days, his philosophy was inter-
preted as permitting brutal force, while in reality he was
speaking of man's inner spiritual striving, the conquest within
by the force of virtue. Nietzsche became defiant of the exist-
ing morality in the same way that Ibsen became a rebel against
society. Both hoped to discover new glory for mankind. Po-? -.
litical revolutions were, according to Ibsen, small things. The
significant thing would be a revolution within the spirit of the
human being.
A new moral evaluation crept through the thought of the
philosophers, Ibsen, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and many others,
who claimed that the action of man should be dependent
upon his whole personality with all its emotional and intel-
lectual content and, therefore, that all ideals, even the sacred
one, would have to be abandoned if the personality were to
survive. This could mean no less than that the act and the ego
would have to be one and that the act and ego would together
win or die.
The whole fight, then, was a fight to save one's own indi-
viduality, one's own personality, one's own existence. It is only
in this light that we can understand many of the prodigies and
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? City by the River 37
philosophers who flourished in the last decades of the nine-
teenth century, all of them reflecting the moods of the people.
In short, Schopenhauer's philosophy, intermingled with Nietz-
sche's Lebensphilosophie and criss-crossed with concepts
derived from the various fields in science, created contradic-
tions. But these very contradictions were in reality only a re-
flection of what was going on in the minds of the people.
Discussions about the nature of truth were going on, and the
disputes could mean only uncertainty and doubt.
Was this uncertainty new? No, it stemmed from the days
when the human being first noticed that he had two contra-
dictory currents within himself: the romantic and the realistic;
the mystical and the empirical; the idealistic and the positivis-
tic. Of this warfare within himself man has been more or less
conscious, keeping alive the conflict, which has never lessened.
But these very oppositions have always produced doubt about
the nature of existence, a doubt which persisted even after
the impact of science had made itself felt.
Such was also the case with the people of Vienna. This un-
certainty about life in general meant tiredness, it meant de-
. spondency and weariness, even though behind a glittering
front.
Bad as this uncertainty might appear, however, it had its
own virtue. It was not static and did not mean--had never
meant--a perfect condition, a fait accompli, a feeling that all
was accomplished and done. Instead, uncertainty meant that
something had to be torn down and something else created. It
caused men to search for new ideals, a search stemming from
the eternal roots of ignorance of man's destiny and future.
Hence, the spasmodic despair, the relentless doubt; the twi-
light mood emerged as men strove to correlate their own exist-
ence with reality.
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? Student and
Senilis
On july 14, 1898, Otto Weininger was graduated from
the secondary schools, and in that same year he matricu-
lated for the winter term at the University of Vienna, entering
the Department of Philosophy. He attended lectures on all
sorts of subjects, for it seems that he had not yet definitely
chosen any special branch of knowledge. His energy was enor-
mous. In addition to psychology and philosophy, he studied
literature, physics, and mathematics. He wanted to know every-
thing. But in the autumn of 1900 he lost interest in mathe-
matics and physics, and after he had written a cursory essay,
"The Problem of Talent," he started to study biology and
medicine. His interest was so great that, although he had not
cared for laboratory work in physics, he even dissected a hu-
man brain. At that time he began collecting material for his
psychobiological thesis, which was later to become the first
part of Sex and Character. It would seem just to say that he
was much more interested in this outside work than he was in
the courses at the University which might have prepared him
for a profession and provided him the means of making a
living.
From the start Otto Weininger attracted wide attention
because of his intensive studies and other activities. "There
was not at this time," writes Gerber, "a single event of any
importance in Vienna that escaped his interest. Throughout
the years he followed the intellectual and cultural life of the
capital. In Vienna there was not one book, not one concert,
not one theatrical performance, of which he did not form an
opinion. There was not one happening within his sphere of
influence about which he did not make up his mind" (Taschen-
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? Student and Genius 39
buch, p. 9). He lived in the center of excessive activity, not
jubilantly, but observing, not as an enjoying youth, but as a
searching and doubting man. He looked at everything with
keen eyes from every angle and tried to penetrate each so
that he could do what he most wanted to: understand. With
such an attitude, he had to be active, but being so, he appar-
ently could not remain merely part of an audience and enjoy
the spectacle as an audience could. His restless nature gave him
little time to enjoy things and to savor life.
Such a penetrating attitude was strengthened to no small
extent by his interest in psychology, which he studied in his
customary manner--through introspection. His enthusiasm for
psychology expressed itself by his journey to attend the Con-
ference of Psychology (rv* Congres International de Psy-
chologic) at Paris in 1900. It was here, in the city where
Charcot twenty-five years earlier had become famous, that
Otto attracted public attention to himself for the first time.
A youngster of twenty, he spoke confidently of his own views
to the learned gathering.
Otto Weininger's part in the discussion (which is printed
in the proceedings of the meeting, published in Paris in 1901,
pp. 642-43) was based on a paper given by Dr. Paul M. }. Joire
entitled "New, Especially Experimental, Methods in the
Study of Psychology. " It is noteworthy that Otto even at this
stage of his development expressed his idea of using intro-
spection as a research method in psychology. He opened his
remarks with the statement, "I should like only to say a few
words about the scant value which Dr. Joire gives to intro-
spection. " Then, after brief remarks on experimental psy-
chology, he asks, "Will introspection become superfluous? "
He finished with the following words: "To reach the goal
of psychology we need an introspection so refined that we
hardly can visualize it today--an introspection to establish a
coordination as continuous as possible, the absolute parallelism
between the phenomena we call psychic and all the neurocere-
bral accompaniment. In other words, I can only repeat my
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? 40 Student and Genius
belief that introspection should go hand in hand with progress
in the physiology of the nervous system. "
It would be wrong to think that such a view was new. The
idea had been in the air for a long, long time, and it had
cone to the fore particularly since Freud started his new
approach to exploring the mind, psychoanalysis. To Otto
Weininger introspection into the personality came to mean
something more, and gradually became so much that it finally
was for him an end in itself, no matter what his activity was.
The tendency was also strengthened by his belief that he
was himself to become a genius. He made little reference in
his speech to what others might think on the same subject.
Indeed, "he was conscious of being a genius," as Gerber wrote
later (Taschenbuch, p. 11). This same thought is found in
Sex and Character in the discussion of the early development
of the genius: "To every great man there comes a moment
when he has the absolute certainty that he has an ego of spe-
cial importance. " No doubt he was thinking of himself when
he wrote these words. Belief in himself was also demonstrated
by the study he devoted to the works and biographies of out-
standing men in order to find some basic elements that he
might have in common with them (Taschenbuch, p. 11).
Above all, introspection as he discussed it at the Conference
he applied to himself. To this end, he even used to look at his
face in the minor, particularly when he had an inspiration, to see
if his feelings and thoughts had left any impression on his face.
He repeatedly stated that "the more important the man be-
came, the more impressive his features became" (Taschenbuch,
pp. 10-11), a statement which undoubtedly was borne out
when he looked at his own countenance in the minor. One
would be justified in saying that introspection became for him
one of the ways by which to squeeze the utmost from himself
and from his own life.
Thus, there is good reason to believe that even at an early
age Weininger thought he possessed the power to become a
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? LETTER WRITTEN BY FREUD, MARCH 14, 1938
This letter was written at the time of Hitler's triumphal march into
Vienna. Note on the envelope (on reverse of this page) the post-
mark "Der Fuhrer in Wten. "
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? Student and Genius 43
great man, and it was his conviction that he would in time
present new visions to the world.
I With this feeling of superiority and in a rather excited mood
he returned to Vienna from Paris. About a month later some-
thing happened to him which in itself might have been of no
great importance but, happening at a time when it was bound
to make the greatest impression on his sensitive mind, actually
came to mean much to him. In fact it became the cornerstone
of his work. One evening in October, 1900, he met his friend
Swoboda, who had just had a talk with Freud about the prob-
lems of bisexuality. During this discussion Freud had told
Swoboda that the dualism present in man could be explained
by the bisexual disposition of each human and that this was
possible because of the nature of human anatomy. Swoboda
was excited about the whole idea and repeated it to Weininger
that same evening. 1
To learn of this happening is startling, especially since Ot-
to's good friend Lucka and his sister knew nothing of this
connection with Freud. I therefore wrote to Freud himself,
who gave me the following answer: "His principal thesis he
also got from me indirectly, and in a quite inaccurate way"
(Letter IV). 2
How did Weininger get in touch with Freud? Freud has
1 The details of this conversation can be found in Die gemeinniitzige Forschung
und der eigennutzige Forscher, a book by Swoboda, published in 1906. "In
October, 1900 . . . Freud remarked that the dualism I had noticed could
be explained by the bisexual disposition of every man and that it was made
plausible by this anatomical fact. That was all Freud said to me. I was very
interested and told Weininger the same evening. I cannot with certainty say
he heard the word bisexuality from me. In any case, he cannot have heard
more than that word, for that was all I knew" (pp. 6-7).
2 It is beyond the scope of this book to judge between Weininger and Swoboda
on one side and Fliess on the other. Bisexuality, as a concept, seems to have
been defined as early as 1846, by A. Berthold, in his essay, "Geschlechtseigen-
tumlichkeiten" (Handworterbuch der Psychologie, Vol. I; see Swoboda, Die
Forschung, p. 8), so it would seem that neither Weininger nor Swoboda nor
Fliess had priority on the word. It is interesting to see what Freud himself wrote
in this connection: "As recently as 1906, W. Fliess (Der Abhuf des Lebens)
has claimed ownership of the idea of bisexuality (in the sense of double sex).
In uninformed circles assertion is made that the philosopher, O. Weininger,
is the authority for the human bisexuality conception since this idea is made
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? 44 Student and Genius
given me the answer to this, too: "Weininger was never my pa-
tient, but one of his friends was. Through this means Weininger
became acquainted with the views on bisexuality which I had
already applied in my analysis, prompted by Fliess" (Letter
XIV).
This evidence is also supported by an article "Otto Wei-
ninger Plagiarist," written by Julius Kraus (in Die Wage, No.
43, October, 1906, p. 970). The article says that Fliess wrote
a book Vber den Ablauf des Lebens, which had just recently
been published. During the many years he worked on it, he
kept Freud informed about his progress. Professor Freud dis-
cussed the book with his friend and patient, Dr. Hermann
Swoboda in Vienna, who was an intimate friend of Otto
Weininger. In this way Weininger became familiar with the
ideas of Dr. Fliess.
This concept of bisexuality strongly affected Weininger's
sensitive mind.
It became rooted in him; since it was men-
tioned to him when he was on his own for the first time, the
effect was unusually strong.
Such a phenomenon is often seen in people of a nature like
Weininger's. When a minor event registers in the mind of a
particular disposition, little significance may be attached to '
it in the beginning. Yet because of the particular mechanism of
the psychological reactions, the event, unimportant as it may
appear, eventually grows stronger in effect and may even be-
come the turning point of development. Thus, what Weininger
was told of bisexuality was destined to be of decisive impor-
tance in his life.
Bisexuality was not the original basis for his thesis. The
cursory sketches of this work which were read by Oskar Ewald
(pseudonym for Oskar Friedlander) were more concerned with
talent than with sex, and they were intended for use in an at-
tempt to obtain a scholarship. Further, Weininger's work was
the foundation of his rather hasty work," Geschlect und Charakter, 1903
(Freud, Basic Writings, ed. by A. A. Brill, Modern Library ed. , New York,
1938, p. 559).
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? Student and Genius 45
not originally called Sex and Character but Eros and Psyche,
a title he later changed because of its literary coloring.
From the moment that Weininger became aware of the
problem of bisexuality, he began collecting his material. The
theory of bisexuality led him to believe that man and woman
were not separated distinctly from each other, but that there
was in every individual a mixture of masculine and feminine
substance (Sex and Character, pp. 9-10).
Thus, he reduced all differences between man and woman
to one single principle, the sex difference; but in doing so, he
placed more value on man than on woman; indeed as we shall
see later, he reduced woman's position in absurdum.
The dominating idea of bisexuality influenced him greatly.
This particular subject absorbed all his energy, and he worked
day and night to solve the sexual problem. "We spent many
a night together, often with other friends, discussing practically
everything he wanted to work out further. " 3 The work fasci-
nated him, and his absorption in it was increased by his study
of empiric criticism, a positivistic, pragmatic view at that time
predominant at the University of Vienna.
This viewpoint made Weininger at the beginning of his
university career an extreme antimetaphysicist. He became,
so to say, ametaphysical and was mainly occupied with us-
ing science in a broad sense to solve the problem of knowl-
edge. It was no coincidence that Kant's problem, "How is
experience possible? " had a deep influence on him. Like Kant,
he searched for the conditions of knowledge and for its proof,
sharing with him the opinion that the basis for knowledge was
a combination of empirical and rational material.
Weininger's was a positivistic view. As an intellectual with-
out any disposition toward metaphysics or mysticism, he at
this time subscribed to the words of Auguste Comte: Savoir
pour prevoir, peur pouvoir. Following the teachings of Pro-
tagoras and Hume, Weininger considered experience as the
* Emil Lucka, Otto Weininger: Der Mensch und sein Werk (Vienna, 1905).
Hereafter cited in the text simply as Lucka.
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? 46 Student and Genius
only foundation of knowledge. Along this trend of thought
he met empiric criticism. He was familiar with the doctrines
as early as 1899 and 1900, but he became better acquainted
with them after having been drawn into a group which in-
cluded his friend of later days, Emil Lucka. Lucka relates how
several young men who took an interest in the problem of
knowledge formed a small discussion group. "During 1901 we
got together once a week in the workshop belonging to the
father of one of the group. Guided by some trained men, we
read Richard Avenarius's Kritik der reinen Erfanning (Cri-
tique of Pure Experience). We were very serious about it;
we would often discuss one sentence for hours. "
Thus--in colorful reality--the young men got together in
the evenings and late into the night discussed the man whose
psychological and philosophical views were at this time a focal
point in philosophical circles in Vienna. It is not hard to guess
that Otto Weininger did not take much part in the discus-
sions. But let us hear what Lucka says of how he behaved: "He
was usually silent during the discussions, apparently making
his own observations. We went together most of the way home,
arid I found that our ideas concurred amazingly. Although I
was the older, he knew far more than I and told me much I did
not know. I asked him to come to see me, and we became good
friends in a very short while. We were equally interested in all
problems of psychology and philosophy, and agreed on most
points. However, when he found an observation on women I
had made in one of my earlier essays, we were in utter accord
with each other" (Lucka, p. 4).
There seems to be no doubt that the discussions in the group
made a deep impression upon Weininger's receptive and un-
prepared mind. Perhaps he at bottom was in discord with their
views; yet for the time being his own protests were overruled
by the group and he became a strong adherent to the theo-
retical and methodological principles of Avenarius. 4
* The influence of Avenarius is quite noticeable in Weininget's first scientific
researches. The principles of Avenarius's methods obviously were used as models
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? Student and Genius 47
Weininger's studies became more "empirical," and he him-
self was now taking an eager interest in the natural sciences.
In the fall and winter of 1900 he worked feverishly at collect-
ing research data, and he arrived early in 1901, according to
his own statement, at the "Law of Sexual Attraction. " This
formulation was an important event to him. He seemed exceed-
ingly happy about his discovery and explained with great joy
the mathematical formula of his law to his good friend,
Swoboda, whom he met practically every day at that time. As
it later turned out, however, his joy did not endure, for he
then discovered that Schopenhauer had earlier found this same
law (Sex and Character, p. 489).
In any event, as his work fanned out, he started to deal with
the problem of homosexuality and the emancipation of
woman, but his studies still remained on the surface empirical.
During this period of intense activity he was incessantly
occupied. When he was at home he had dinner only two or
three times weekly, and sometimes he ate only bare necessi-
ties, not even his supper (see Der Fall, p. 8). In the summer of
1901, while he was staying in a little garden house in Piirkers-
dorf, near Vienna, he wrote down his ideas with terrific energy
and at a forced tempo. Lucka says (p. 75), "Otto Weininger
in a month assimilated as many books and thought inde-
pendently about as many matters as other talented men would
in the course of one or more years. " The manuscript, amount-
ing to 120 pages in all, was to be his doctor's thesis (see Swo-
boda, Die Forschung, p. 14).
He harmonized his style with his subject; therefore the writ-
ing is, by and large, quiet, although one can feel his blazing
spirit behind the apparently calm front. The reader has the
distinct impression that the author is working within limits
far too narrow for such an indomitable mind. On the surface,
when Weininger applied the same methods. Another basic similarity between
Avenarius and Weininger is the way they both start from a biological founda-
tion. One can also note the influence of Avenarius's terminology. The real
content of his general conception of experience is explained in his Der mensch-
liche Weltbegriff (Leipzig, 1891).
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? 48 Student and Genius
however, everything was calm although there was disquiet
fermenting underneath, in a fermentation which was a warn-
ing of a mental change.
Because of his strong mental conflicts, Weininger was dis-
satisfied with life as early as the summer of 1900. With his
brooding and introverted make-up, he was probably very much
concerned with himself and with what he believed to be his
great mission.
The result of his feverish activity was that he overestimated
the importance of his work. "It was an investigation of prin-
ciple that he was making. It was pure law in practice that he
was studying. He was reducing the difference between man and
woman to one basic principle. " As his self-esteem grew, the
value of his work mounted in his eyes, and it became so im-
portant and took on such a large scale that all his surroundings
had to be included in it. As his work proceeded, it became more
and more a part of him. Even though his study--at least to a
certain degree--dealt with natural science, it still carried a per-
sonal touch, which became more and more pronounced until
finally the whole was only personal. Then Sex and Character
was a part of himself, involving his own life.
Thus, his writing at that time was partly built on empirical
facts and was instigated by his sense of reality. Intermingled
with them in a peculiar way were speculative, mystical ele-
ments which were closely related to his own fantasies and led
him to a distorted view. The question of sexual differences,
which should have been the starting point for his study, finally
became the goal instead. The idea of reducing all differences
between man and woman to one basic principle reflected his
daydreams, and he felt obliged to bring his concept of the sexual
problem into accord with his cosmic view. Gradually he be-
came more and more engrossed in his daydreams, and as he
tried to solve his life problems, a greater and greater distance
yawned between the reality which existed and the "reality"
he found in his own thoughts.
It seems quite certain that Otto Weininger sought to make
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? Student and Genius 49
his spirit encompass all human problems, but the attitude itself
revealed his own defects. Ewald remarked rightly, "The power
of his influence was in the human impulse which accompanied
him and which expressed itself in all his shortcomings and all
his immaturity (he was just twenty! )" (Letter V).
The collection of material in the period from the fall of 1900
to the summer of 1901 was the external side of his activity.
But though there was considerable internal activity also, he did
not then give any sign of a mental change. The outsider could
see only that in his locked-up mind a great deal of introspec-
tion was going on. This gave him an air of secrecy. Strindberg
described him in a letter to Gerber as a "strange, mysterious
man. "
Secrecy went well with his striking appearance. "The slender
body was rigid and without any elasticity or grace. His move-
ments were abrupt and helpless, never impulsive. His lack of
grace was so much more remarkable when one noticed the
hesitating way his hand would grasp a thing and then sud-
denly take a hard grip on it. If his movements were hesitant
and weak, his grip was strong and hard, so that his hand was
no more a regular hand, but a fist. He dressed shabbily. His
way of walking was undecided, and he would often walk with
his chin resting on his chest. But sometimes he would race
along" (Taschenbuch, p. 6).
Gerber gives the following picture: "Nobody who had once
seen his face could ever forget it. The big dome of his fore-
head marked it. The face was peculiar looking because of the
large eyes; the look in them seemed to surround everything. In
spite of his youth, his face was not handsome: it was rather
ugly. Never did I see him laugh or smile. His face was always
dignified and serious. Only when he was outdoors in spring
did it seem to relax, and then become cheerful and bright. At
many concerts he would shine with happiness. In the most
wonderful moments we spent together, particularly when he
talked about an idea in which he was interested, his eyes were
filled with happiness. Otherwise his face was impenetrable.
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? 5?
Student and Genius
One could never, up to the last few months, find in his face
any hint of what was happening deep within his soul. The
taut muscles would often move, and sharp wrinkles would
appear on his face, as if they were caused by intolerable pain.
If asked for the reason, he controlled himself at once, gave a
vague or evasive answer, or talked about other matters, mak-
ing further questioning impossible. His manners would occa-
sionally elicit surprise, and often a smile. He cared little for
traditions and prejudices.
"The influence of his personality seemed strongest at night.
His body seemed to grow; there was something ghostlike in
his movements and there would be something demoniac in his
manner. And when, as happened at times, his conversation
became passionate, when he made a movement in the air with
his stick or his umbrella as if he were fighting an invisible
ghost, one was always reminded of a person from the imag-
inary circles of E. Th. A. Hoffmann.
"I have often thought of one particular evening: we had
been wandering around the Votivkirche for a long time. He
had kept me company to my home, and then I went back
with him part of the way until, finally, after hours of walking
late at night, we were outside my home again. We shook
hands. Not a sound was heard except our own voices, not a
soul in the street except the two of us. He looked at me and
whistled. 'Have you ever thought of your own double? What
if he came now? Your double is the man who knows every-
thing about you, even that which nobody tells. ' Then he
turned around and disappeared" (Taschenbuch, pp. 6-8).
No matter what form his activities took, they were rooted
deep within himself. He was never able to run away from
himself, to enjoy wholeheartedly things that other people
liked. He seemed always compelled to have a reason for his
behavior, even if that reason were acceptable only to himself.
No wonder that his conduct not infrequently called forth
smiles from the fellow men around him.
His attitude when he participated in the students' sport
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 08:38 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/wu. 89038364857 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? Student and Genius 51
activities is a case in point. One might suppose that he took
part because he wanted to train his body, but that reason was
only part of the truth. What he wanted to do more than any-
thing else was to watch the students' delight in training (pos-
sibly because of unconscious homosexual leanings). It is
hardly surprising, however, that this gave him no satisfaction.
About that time he was for a short while a member of the
Society for the Social Sciences, but the group was apparently
not much to his liking.