author
Otto Weininger
1880–1903
Best known for the provocative 1903 book Sex and Character, this young Viennese thinker became one of the most controversial intellectual figures of his era. His life was brief, but his work left a long and uneasy trail through debates about gender, identity, and modern culture.
3 Audiobooks
Sex & Character Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
by Otto Weininger
Geschlecht und Charakter: Eine prinzipielle Untersuchung
by Otto Weininger
Über die letzten Dinge
by Otto Weininger
About the author
Born in Vienna in 1880, Otto Weininger studied at the University of Vienna, where he worked in philosophy and psychology while also taking courses in the natural sciences and medicine. He completed a dissertation on bisexuality and soon developed the ideas that would shape his only major book.
That book, Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character), was published in 1903. It brought together philosophy, psychology, and sweeping claims about men, women, and identity. The book drew attention quickly and later became notorious for its misogynistic and antisemitic arguments, even as some writers and thinkers continued to discuss its influence on the intellectual climate of early 20th-century Europe.
Weininger died in Vienna in October 1903 at the age of 23, shortly after the book appeared. His short life, dramatic death, and fiercely argued writing helped turn him into a lasting, if deeply troubling, figure in the history of ideas.