Philosophy of sex is an aspect of applied philosophy involved with the study of sex and love. It includes both ethics of phenomena such as prostitution, rape, sexual harassment, sexual identity, the age of consent, homosexuality, and conceptual analysis of more universal questions such as "what is sex?" It also includes matters of sexuality and sexual identity and the ontological status of gender. Leading contemporary philosophers of sex include Alan Soble, Judith Butler, and Raja Halwani.
Contemporary philosophy of sex is sometimes informed by Western feminism. Issues raised by feminists regarding gender differences, sexual politics, and the nature of sexual identity are important questions in the philosophy of sex.
- What is the function of sex?
- 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?
- What is the relationship between sex and biological reproduction? Can one exist without the other?
- 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 considered only within the general subject of 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 is a professional group within the membership of the American Philosophical Association.
Sexual 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:
A negative understanding of sexuality, such as from Immanuel Kant, 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". In this understanding, sex is often advised only for the purpose of procreation. Sometimes sexual celibacy is considered to lead to the best, or most moral life.
A positive understanding of sexuality – such as from , Irving Singer, Bertrand Russell in his Marriage and Morals – sees sexual activity as pleasing the self and the other at the same time.
Putative perversions
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 reciprocal arousal is absent, and in which a person remains fully a subject of the sexual experience or fully an object.
Consent
See also
- Antisexualism
- Religion and sexuality
- Sex positivism
- Society and sexuality
References
- Alan Soble. Internet encyclopedia of philosophy: Philosophy of Sexuality
- Kant, Immanuel. Lectures on Ethics, p. 163
- St. Paul's praising, in 1 Corinthians 7, sexual celibacy as the ideal spiritual state.
- Nagel's "Sexual Perversion," pp. 15-17.
Further reading
- 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).
- Butler, Judith (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90043-3.
- Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90365-3.
- 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.
- Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality, The Limits of Love and Knowledge, Book XX, Encore, 1972–1973, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998).
- 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.
- McEvoy, Adrianne Leigh, Ed. Sex, Love, and Friendship. Studies of the Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love: 1993-2003. Amsterdam/New York, NY, Rodopi, 2011.
- 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, 3rd 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.
- Mario Perniola. The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic, Continuum, New York-London (2004), ISBN 0-8264-6245-6.
- 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, Massachusetts: 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. Second revised, expanded edition, 2008.
- Soble, Alan. Sexual Investigations. New York: New York University Press,1996.
- Soble, Alan, ed. Eros, Agape and Philia. New York: Paragon House, 1989. Corrected reprint, 1999.
- Soble, Alan, ed. The Philosophy of Sex, 4th edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002; revised 5th edition, 2008 (excellent bibliography covering the whole area phil sex).
- 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
- Internet encyclopedia of philosophy: philosophy of sex (also by Soble)
- Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love
- Bibliography: Traditions in the Cultural Representation of Love, Sex, Gender, and the Body: c.100 BC - 1500 AD
Philosophy of sex is an aspect of applied philosophy involved with the study of sex and love It includes both ethics of phenomena such as prostitution rape sexual harassment sexual identity the age of consent homosexuality and conceptual analysis of more universal questions such as what is sex It also includes matters of sexuality and sexual identity and the ontological status of gender Leading contemporary philosophers of sex include Alan Soble Judith Butler and Raja Halwani Contemporary philosophy of sex is sometimes informed by Western feminism Issues raised by feminists regarding gender differences sexual politics and the nature of sexual identity are important questions in the philosophy of sex What is the function of sex 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 What is the relationship between sex and biological reproduction Can one exist without the other 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 sexThroughout much of the history of Western philosophy questions of sex and sexuality have been considered only within the general subject of 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 is a professional group within the membership of the American Philosophical Association Sexual desireMoral evaluations of sexual activity are determined by judgments on the nature of the sexual impulse In this light philosophies fall into two camps A negative understanding of sexuality such as from Immanuel Kant 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 In this understanding sex is often advised only for the purpose of procreation Sometimes sexual celibacy is considered to lead to the best or most moral life A positive understanding of sexuality such as from Irving Singer Bertrand Russell in his Marriage and Morals sees sexual activity as pleasing the self and the other at the same time Putative perversionsThomas 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 reciprocal arousal is absent and in which a person remains fully a subject of the sexual experience or fully an object ConsentSee alsoAntisexualism Religion and sexuality Sex positivism Society and sexualityReferencesAlan Soble Internet encyclopedia of philosophy Philosophy of Sexuality Kant Immanuel Lectures on Ethics p 163 St Paul s praising in 1 Corinthians 7 sexual celibacy as the ideal spiritual state Nagel s Sexual Perversion pp 15 17 Further readingAquinas 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 amp 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 Butler Judith 1990 Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity New York Routledge ISBN 0 415 90043 3 Butler Judith 1993 Bodies That Matter On the Discursive Limits of Sex New York Routledge ISBN 0 415 90365 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 Lacan Jacques The Seminar of Jacques Lacan On Feminine Sexuality The Limits of Love and Knowledge Book XX Encore 1972 1973 ed Jacques Alain Miller trans Bruce Fink New York W W Norton amp Company 1998 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 McEvoy Adrianne Leigh Ed Sex Love and Friendship Studies of the Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love 1993 2003 Amsterdam New York NY Rodopi 2011 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 3rd 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 Mario Perniola The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic Continuum New York London 2004 ISBN 0 8264 6245 6 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 Massachusetts 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 Second revised expanded edition 2008 Soble Alan Sexual Investigations New York New York University Press 1996 Soble Alan ed Eros Agape and Philia New York Paragon House 1989 Corrected reprint 1999 Soble Alan ed The Philosophy of Sex 4th edition Lanham Md Rowman and Littlefield 2002 revised 5th edition 2008 excellent bibliography covering the whole area phil sex 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 linksInternet encyclopedia of philosophy philosophy of sex also by Soble Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love Bibliography Traditions in the Cultural Representation of Love Sex Gender and the Body c 100 BC 1500 AD
