Arabesques: Otto Weininger and his "1901--02 Studien" (an analysis and a translation).

This dissertation explores life and work of the Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger (1880--1903) and offers an annotated translation and an analysis of his earlier works titled as 1901--02 Studien. They include his dissertation draft Eros and Psyche: biologisch psychologische Studien ("Eros and Psyche: A Biological-psychological Study"), sketch Zur Theorie des Lebens ("Toward a Theory of Life"), and two small pieces Excursus 1 and 2. The leading idea of Eros and Psyche is the universality of bisexuality. According to Weininger, there are innumerable "sexual intermediate stages" ("sexuelle Zwischenstufen") between an ideal Man (M) and an ideal Woman (W). He describes each person as a hybrid with a unique gender model, which is characterized by an individual quantitative and qualitative content of feminine and masculine elements. This model constantly undergoes mutation and transformation, according to various factors, including time and space. This dissertation discusses Weininger's new theories on: gender, gender models, sexual attraction (das Gesetz der Liebe), characterology, metachemistry (gender and sexuality at the molar and molecular level), the moral fulfillment in time, the theory of genius (die Theorie der Begabung), love, language (including his thinking on henids), and other subjects. This dissertation consists of a prolegomena and five chapters. The first chapter, "A Survey of Weininger's Life," offers biographical information and important events of Weininger's life. The second chapter, "Weininger's Reception," describes the critical reaction to Weininger's works, which focuses on the reception of his famous book Geschlecht and Charakter ("Sex and Character"). The third chapter, "Major Concepts in Weininger's Philosophy," briefly outlines important aspects of Weininger's philosophy, including the problem of I (das Ich), the principle of moral fulfillment in time, the phenomenon of projection, the concepts of soul and body, value, the problem of woman and the Jew, the problem of duality (consciousness/unconsciousness), the law of sexual attraction, the concepts of Form and Matter, and henids. The fourth chapter, "The New Science of Characterology," describes Weininger's ideas about human character, including the psychology of animals, archetypes (the molar approach of character), and metachemistry (the molecular approach of character). The fifth chapter, "An English Translation of Otto Weininger's Studien 1901--02," is my translation of Weininger's text from German into English. It is divided into segments according to the original. This dissertation also has two appendixes. Appendix 1) includes "Reflections on Weininger's Suicide." It offers a new view on Weininger's suicide. Appendix 2) includes "Rethinking Weininger's Theory of Gender and Sexuality." It offers a new perspective on Weininger's theory of gender and sexuality. The last part of the dissertation is a Bibliography.Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, 2004.School code: 0260