Wittgenstein’s Women

Journal of Philosophical Research 22:483-508 (1997)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

While Wittgenstein commentators dismiss his remarks on women and femininity as trivial and unworthy of attention, I focus exactly on what they consider parenthetical and of no philosophical value. First, I document Wittgenstein’s attitudes toward women and femininity, and subject his remarks to critical analysis. Secondly, I retrieve and explore some aspects of Otto Weininger’s influence on Wittgenstein. Thirdly, by introducing considerations of chronology and circumstance, I argue that while the early Wittgenstein of the Tractatus endorsed Weininger’s views on women and sex, the mature Wittgenstein of the Investigations repudiated them without ceasing to adrnire his work or its spirit. Finally, I sketch crucial, unnoticed differences between Weininger and the mature Wittgenstein concerning femininity and philosophical method. The author’s intention is to contribute to the project of challenging the supposed divide between the understanding of philosophical thought, on the one hand, and socio-cultural contexts and biography on the other.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Wittgenstein’s Women.Béla Szabados - 1997 - Journal of Philosophical Research 22:483-508.
Wittgenstein Reads Weininger.David G. Stern & Béla Szabados (eds.) - 2004 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Weininger und Wittgenstein.Barry Smith - 1984 - Teoria 2:156–165.
Reviews. [REVIEW][author unknown] - 2001 - Philosophical Investigations 24 (2):193-211.
Wittgenstein after his Nachlass.Nuno Venturinha (ed.) - 2010 - New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Wittgenstein.Anthony Kenny - 1973 - Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wittgenstein.Anthony Kenny - 1973 - Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Eagleton's Wittgenstein.Robert Vinten - 2015 - Critique 43 (2):261-276.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-02-17

Downloads
40 (#347,838)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Bela Szabados
University of Regina

Citations of this work

The significance of jewishness for Wittgenstein's philosophy.David G. Stern - 2000 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 43 (4):383 – 401.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references