本书是奥地利犹太裔哲学家奥托·魏宁格23岁时发表的著作，也是他生前发表的惟一著作。一百年来，《性与性格》一直在被研究和争论。人们对它众说纷纭，褒贬不一——或舵拍案喝彩，或对它口诛笔伐。其重要原因之一就是它不同于一般的性心理学专著，更不是坊间常见的那种打着性学旗号的庸俗读物。它不但提出了带有普遍性和根本性的两性关系问题，而且从哲学、逻辑学、伦理学和心理学等多个角度对这些问题进行了反传统的探讨。本书的思想维度如此深广，却出自一个如此年轻的哲学家，实属罕见。

Otto Weininger's controversial book Sex and Character, first published in Vienna in 1903, is a prime example of the conflicting discourses central to its time: antisemitism, scientific racism and biologism, misogyny, the cult and crisis of masculinity, psychological introspection versus empiricism, German idealism, the women's movement and the idea of human emancipation, the quest for sexual liberation, and the debates about homosexuality. Combining rational reasoning with irrational outbursts, in the context of today's scholarship, Sex and Character speaks to issues of gender, race, cultural identity, the roots of Nazism, and the intellectual history of modernism and modern European culture. This new translation presents, for the first time, the entire text, including Weininger's extensive appendix with amplifications of the text and bibliographical references, in a reliable English translation, together with a substantial introduction that places the book in its cultural and historical context.