Otto Weininger

Born in Vienna on April 3, 1880, he studied philosophy and related subjects at the University of Vienna. He published Sex and Character in 1903, a book that brought together ideas about psychology, ethics, religion, and gender in a way that drew strong reactions almost immediately.

Weininger died later that same year, on October 4, 1903, at just 23 years old. After his death, his writing gained wider attention and influenced a range of later readers and writers, even as many of its arguments came under heavy criticism.

Today, he is remembered as a striking but deeply controversial figure in Austrian intellectual history. His work is still read mainly as an example of the restless, often extreme thought of fin-de-siècle Vienna, and it is also widely criticized for its misogynistic and antisemitic claims.