Defining Sex
Philosophy 2103:
Philosophies of Love, Sex, and Friendship
What is a sexual act?
• Clinton and Lewinsky
• Judge’s narrow definition of sex: a person engages in sex only
when one “knowingly … causes contact with the genitalia,
anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person.”
• Other cases?
• Greeks and pederasty?
• Sex workers?
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Doctor and patient?
Sexual assault?
The question of intention (and not just bodily parts)
Clinton and Lewinsky again
Lap dancers?
Philosophy
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Socrates and the beginning of philosophy
Scepticism
Methodology
Different questions/Different goals
How many people does it take to have
sex?
• Thomas Nagel: escalating levels of mutual, reciprocal
interpersonal desire. Non-reciprocal desire is
truncated/incomplete or perverse/unnatural.
• Jean Paul Sartre: subject/object. I recognize other as a subject,
she recognizes me (and reduces me) to an object. To avoid
this, I objectify her. I wish to possess the other as subject and
object but this is doomed to failure. Sex, therefore, is
essentially solitary.
• Immanuel Kant: The sexual drive reduces the object of our
desire to bodily parts that we then use to satisfy our desires. It
is, then, using others solely as a means to our own ends (of
sexual gratification) and as such is morally problematic.
• Combinations?
What are the advantages and
disadvantages of solitary sex?
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Former Surgeon General, Jocelyn Elders’ forced resignation.
History of beliefs about masturbation
Wasting seed. ?????
Possible benefits
Possible harms
Possible benefits
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1) risk free re. STD’s, pregnancies
2) uncomplicated socially and emotionally
3) few psychological risks
4) availability
5) sexual exploration
6) freedom from convention
7) health benefits (e.g., stress)
Possible harms
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1) Can’t produce pregnancy
2) can’t contribute to emotional growth and social skills
Could lead to isolation and loneliness
Lacks excitement – sex and the unknown
Loosing touch with reality
Interference with other parts of one’s life
Can’t make you feel wanted, loved, etc.
Conclusion re. masturbation
• Moderation
• Good at some times and in some situations
• Both solitary and companion sex probably necessary for a
good life.
• Tolerance and openess
Is cybersex genuine sex?
• Film examples: Sleeper, Barbarella, Demolition Man, Crash.
• How important is physical, skin-on-skin contact? How
important is interaction? How important is immersion?
• Realism and correspondence theory of truth
• Mind vs. Body: Materialism, Idealism, Dualism
Teledildonics/Cyberdildonics
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Immersion
Physical stimulation
Mental stimulation
Interaction
Real Time
Cybersex and therapy? Better than other sex?
Crash – dehumanizing technology?
Does sex have a purpose?
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Procreation
‘One flesh’
Communication (or love, etc, or learning ‘body language’)
Mutual, reciprocal interaction
Goldman, “Plain Sex”: sexual desire is the desire for contact with
another person’s body and for the pleasure which such contact
produces; sexual activity is activity which tends to fulfill such desire
of the agent.”
Considerations
• Do intentions have no part to play?
• Is the mind irrelevant?
• BDSM as an example – power and domination rather than
bodily contact per se