- Philosophy of sex
Philosophy of sex is the part of
applied philosophy studying sex andlove . It includes bothethics of phenomena such asprostitution ,rape ,sexual harassment ,sexual identity , andhomosexuality , and conceptual analysis of concepts such as "what is sex"? It also includes questions of sexuality and sexual identity and theontological status ofgender . Contemporary philosophy of sex is rooted in Westernfeminism . Issues raised by feminists regarding gender differences, sexual politics, and the nature of sexual identity are important questions in the philosophy of sex.Leading contemporary philosophers of sex include
Alan Soble andJudith Butler .*What is
romantic love ?
*Is there an essential characteristic that makes an act sexual?
*Are some sexual acts good and others bad? According to what criteria? Alternatively, can consensual sexual acts be immoral, or are they outside the realm of ethics?
*Are sexual identities rooted in some fundamental ontological difference (such as biology)?
*Is sexuality a function of gender or biological sex?History of the philosophy of sex
Throughout much of the history of Western philosophy, questions of sex and sexuality have been relegated to ethics. There have, however, been deviations from this pattern out of which emerge a tradition of speaking of sexual issues in their own right.
The "Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love" [http://www.google.com/u/udel?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22society+for+the+philosophy+of+sex+and+love%22&btnG=Search] is a professional group within the membership of the
American Philosophical Association .exual desire
Moral evaluations of sexual activity are determined by judgments on the nature of the sexual impulse. In this light, philosophies fall into two camps [Sober. Internet encyclopedia of philosophy- Philosophy of Sexuality [http://www.iep.utm.edu/s/sexualit.htm] ] :
A negative understanding of sexuality, such as from
Immanuel Kant ,Sigmund Freud , believes that sexuality undermines values, and challenges our moral treatment of other persons.Sex, says Kant, "makes of the loved person an Object of appetite" [Kant, Immanuel. Lectures on Ethics, p. 163] In this understanding,sexual celibacy may lead to the best, or most moral life. Sometimes it is advised only for the purpose of procreation. [St. Paul's praising, in 1Corinthians 7, sexual celibacy as the ideal spiritual state.]A positive understanding of sexuality, (such as from
Russell Vannoy ,Irving Singer ) understand sexual activity as pleasing the self and the other at the same time.Perversion
Thomas Nagel proposes that only sexual interactions with mutual sexual arousal are natural to human sexuality. Perverted sexual encounters or events would be those in which this mutual recognition of arousal is absent, and in which a person remains fully a subject of the sexual experience or fully an object. [ Nagel's "Sexual Perversion," pp. 15-17.]Consent
References and suggested readings
*
Aquinas , St. Thomas. Summa Theologiae. Cambridge, Eng.: Blackfriars, 1964-76.* Augustine, St. (Aurelius). On Marriage and Concupiscence, in The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, vol. 12, ed. Marcus Dods. Edinburgh, Scot.: T. & T. Clark, 1874.
* Baker, Robert, Kathleen Wininger, and Frederick Elliston, eds. Philosophy and Sex, 3rd edition. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1998.
* Baumrin, Bernard. "Sexual Immorality Delineated," in Robert Baker and Frederick Elliston, eds., Philosophy and Sex, 2nd edition. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1984, pp. 300-11.
* Bloom, Allan. Love and Friendship. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
* Buckley Jr., William F.,
Camille Paglia ,Betty Friedan ,Arianna Huffington ,Michael Kinsley , et al., "Has the Women's Movement Been Disastrous?: A Firing Line Debate," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996).*cite book | author=Butler, Judith | title=Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity | location=New York | publisher=Routledge | year=1990 | id=ISBN 0-415-90043-3
*
* Christensen, F. M., "A Defense of Pornography," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996).
* Christina, Greta. "Are We Having Sex Now or What?" in Alan Soble, ed., The Philosophy of Sex, 3rd edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997, pp. 3-8.
* Finnis, John. "Law, Morality, and 'Sexual Orientation'," Notre Dame Law Review 69:5 (1994), pp. 1049-76.
* Finnis, John and
Martha Nussbaum . "Is Homosexual Conduct Wrong? A Philosophical Exchange," in Alan Soble, ed., The Philosophy of Sex, 3rd edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997, pp. 89-94.*Foucault, Michel. "The History of Sexuality. Vols. 1-3". New York: Vintage, 1990. (Original French publications of the three volumes in 1978, 1984, and 1984, respectively)
* Gray, Robert. "Sex and Sexual Perversion," in Alan Soble, ed., The Philosophy of Sex, 3rd edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997, pp. 57-66.
* Grisez, Germain. The Way of the Lord Jesus. Quincy, Ill.: Franciscan Press, 1993.
* Gudorf, Christine. Body, Sex, and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics. Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1994.
* Hampton, Jean. "Defining Wrong and Defining Rape," in Keith Burgess-Jackson, ed., A Most Detestable Crime: New Philosophical Essays on Rape. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 118-56.
* Held, Virginia. "Coercion and Coercive Offers," in J. Roland Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds., Coercion: Nomos VIX. Chicago, Ill.: Aldine, 1972, pp. 49-62.
* Jung, Patricia, and Ralph Smith. Heterosexism: An Ethical Challenge. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993.
*
Kant , Immanuel. Lectures on Ethics. Translated by Louis Infield. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.* Kant, Immanuel. The Metaphysics of Morals . Translated by Mary Gregor. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
*
C. S. Lewis The Four Loves. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960.* MacKinnon, Catherine A., "The Money of Playboy Magazine," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996).
* Mappes, Thomas. "Sexual Morality and the Concept of Using Another Person," in Thomas Mappes and Jane Zembaty, eds., Social Ethics, 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992, pp. 203-26.
* Mayo, David. "An Obligation to Warn of HIV Infection?" in Alan Soble, ed., Sex, Love and Friendship. Amsterdam. Hol.: Editions Rodopi, 1997, pp. 447-53.
* Muehlenhard, Charlene, and Jennifer Schrag. "Nonviolent Sexual Coercion," in A. Parrot and L. Bechhofer, eds, Acquaintance Rape. The Hidden Crime. New York: John Wiley, 1991, pp. 115-28.
* Murphy, Jeffrie. "Some Ruminations on Women, Violence, and the Criminal Law," in Jules Coleman and Allen Buchanan, eds., In Harm's Way: Essays in Honor of Joel Feinberg. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 209-30.
* Nagel, Thomas. "Sexual Perversion," in Alan Soble, ed., The Philosophy of Sex, 3st edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997, pp. 9-20.
* Nielson-Jones, Oliver. "Sex, Escaping The Rat Race" In G.Bennett and A.Robinson, eds., Sexual Philosophy, 2006, pp. 7-29
* O'Neill, Onora. "Between Consenting Adults," Philosophy and Public Affairs 14:3 (1985), pp. 252-77.
*
Plato . Symposium. Translated by Michael Joyce, in E. Hamilton and H. Cairns, eds., The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961, pp. 526-74.* Posner, Richard. Sex and Reason. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.
* Primoratz, Igor. Ethics and Sex. London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.
* Sanders, Stephanie, and June Reinisch. "Would You Say You 'Had Sex' If . . . ?" Journal of the American Medical Association 281:3 (January 20, 1999), pp. 275-77.
* Scheer, Robert, "Bigger Breasts: The Great Implant Lie," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996).
*
Roger Scruton . Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic. New York: Free Press, 1986.* Singer, Irving. The Nature of Love, vol. 2: Courtly and Romantic. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
* Soble, Alan. "Antioch's 'Sexual Offense Policy': A Philosophical Exploration," Journal of Social Philosophy 28:1 (1997), pp. 22-36.
* Soble, Alan. The Philosophy of Sex and Love: An Introduction. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House, 1998.
* Soble, Alan. Sexual Investigations. New York: New York University Press,1996.
* Soble, Alan, ed. Eros, Agape and Philia. New York: Paragon House, 1989.
* Soble, Alan, ed. The Philosophy of Sex, 4th edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.
* Soble, Alan, ed. Sex, Love, and Friendship. Amsterdam, Hol.: Editions Rodopi, 1996.
* Solomon, Robert, and Kathleen Higgins, eds. The Philosophy of (Erotic) Love. Lawrence. Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1991.
* Stewart, Robert M., ed. Philosophical Perspectives on Sex and Love. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
* Vannoy, Russell. Sex Without Love: A Philosophical Exploration. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1980.
* Verene, Donald, ed. Sexual Love and Western Morality, 2nd edition. Boston, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett, 1995.
* Wertheimer, Alan. "Consent and Sexual Relations," Legal Theory 2:2 (1996), pp. 89-112.
*
Pope John Paul II . Love and Responsibility. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981.External links
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/s/sexualit.htm Internet encyclopedia of philosophy: philosophy of sex (also by Soble)]
* [http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/gendersextexts/culturalrepsbib.html Bibliography: Traditions in the Cultural Representation of Love, Sex, Gender, and the Body: c.100 BC - 1500 AD]
* [http://swami-center.org/en/chpt/sexology/page_7.shtml Sexuality and Ethics]
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