Tetragamy
Tetragamy (about " marriage of four ", from the Greek τετρα- , tetra- = "four" and γάμος , gamos = "marriage") is a term used by Iwan Bloch , with which he subtitled Schopenhauer's thoughts on the grievances of monogamy . The term was not adopted in the so-called tetragamy dispute . This flared up because of a fourth marriage and not a marriage of four.
Tetragamy in Schopenhauer
In a short handwritten sketch, Schopenhauer explains that the natural gender ratio of around 1: 1 only apparently speaks for monogamous marriage. In fact - due to menopause - "a man only gets satisfaction from a woman for half the time of his fertility". He would therefore be forced to take a second wife when the first "withered". Conversely, a woman of childbearing age is capable of “satisfying two to three capable men at the same time without suffering”. The restriction to only one man during the childbearing period is an "unnatural condition" for women.
Schopenhauer sees the solution to this dilemma in tetragamy. Two men marry one woman together when they are young, when property and income are lowest. If the first woman “is no longer a suitable object” they marry a second, young woman, “who is then sufficient until both men are old”. Both women are provided for and each man only has to pay for one woman.
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- ^ Iwan Bloch: The sex life of our time in its relationship to modern culture . Louis Marcus publishing house, Berlin 1907, p. 273–276 ( PDF file; 34.4 MB ).
- ↑ Vienna Institute for Sexual Research (Ed.): Picture Lexicon of Eroticism . tape 3 . Verlag für Kulturforschung, Vienna / Leipzig 1930, p. 805 .
- ↑ Arthur Schopenhauer: Na 50 estate Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 1422 - wallet . 1822, p. 72–79 ( scan of the handwritten estate ).