Question Dear Philosopher(s), I would like to ask what would be Wittgenstein's view about sexuality? I'm not sure whether Wittgenstein would consider sexuality philosophically interesting. Note that I'm interested in what would be strictly Wittgenstein; NOT Wittgensteinian. Thank you for your time.

Accepted:
December 4, 2007

Comments

Let's see. Does this count? Ludwig Wittgenstein, Zettel #504: Love is not a feeling. Love is put to the test, pain not. One does not say:"That was not true pain, or it would not have gone off so quickly."[Liebe ist kein Gefühl. Liebe wird erprobt, Schmerzen nicht. Man sagt nicht:"Das war kein wahrer Schmerz, sonst hätte er nicht so schnell nachgelassen."] [Zettel, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright(Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1970), pp. 89, 89e.] Probably not. There has been gossip, some perhaps mildly confirmed, about his homosexuality (e.g., his taste for rough trade), and the possible influence this had on his ethics. Beyond that--you're right. Nothing. Still, take a look at "Wittgenstein, Ludwig," by Wendy Lynne Lee, in Soble, ed., Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia, vol. 2, pp. 1076-1081 (Greenwood, 2006). Lee does admit at the outset that she will be discussing three "Wittgensteinian themes" that bear upon sexuality. I doubt we can do better than that, although we might argue whether getting a really good Wittgensteinian account of sex would give us what the guy would have written, had he bothered. (Plenty of Kant scholars do that for Kant, and seem tickled-pink by the procedure.) Why didn't Wittgenstein use as an example, in On Certainty, "I'm sure that was an orgasm; what else could it have been"? (a woman speaking).