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Sex and philosophy

James Riley April 09, 2021 at 16:25 3100 views 8 comments
The other day I read a tweet by a woman, sarcastically and rhetorically wondering aloud how the (then) “most recent mass shooting was going to be blamed on pussy.” She used a term I had never heard before: ”incel“. I looked it up and went down the rabbit hole, learning a lot. It stands for “involuntarily celibate.” You can look up how it all started if you care. But for my discussion here, I’m interested if philosophy has any insight into sex, or is sex just deemed another bodily function, an instinct, that is beneath or beyond the realm of philosophical inquiry?

I’m working on some ideas but I’m not so sure they are not really just sociology, biology, psychology, etc. I don’t want to wax on if this is not the proper forum. But I would like to have an answer to the question just asked, above. If philosophy does address sex, how is the line drawn between that which is philosophical and that which is another discipline? My inclination is that everything is an open target. Regardless, what does philosophy have to say about sex, if anything?

Comments (8)

javi2541997 April 09, 2021 at 16:41 #520722
Quoting James Riley
if philosophy has any insight into sex,


Quoting James Riley
Regardless, what does philosophy have to say about sex, if anything?


I guess you would like read about sex inside philosophy more deeply in this site: The Erotic as an Aesthetic Category.
James Riley April 09, 2021 at 16:55 #520728
Reply to javi2541997

:up: Thanks, I'll check that out.
Manuel April 09, 2021 at 18:44 #520760
Quoting James Riley
The other day I read a tweet by a woman, sarcastically and rhetorically wondering aloud how the (then) “most recent mass shooting was going to be blamed on pussy.”


Yes, it's a complex topic. I hope it's not connected with extreme political correctness of the postmodern variety. If it's simply feminism, then there's a lot to discuss.

Quoting James Riley
But I would like to have an answer to the question just asked, above. If philosophy does address sex, how is the line drawn between that which is philosophical and that which is another discipline?


Well, take this with a grain of sand as I am a Schopenhauerian, but Schopenhauer has some interesting things to say about this, I'll link an article below. As for other philosophers that speak about sex, it's not the most common topic sadly so far as I know.

https://www.samwoolfe.com/2020/08/schopenhauer-on-sex-and-romantic-love.html
Olivier5 April 09, 2021 at 20:50 #520780
Freud wrote about sex, perhaps a little too much.

Feminists have written tons of tomes about it, some of them interesting.




Corvus April 09, 2021 at 22:18 #520819
Reply to Olivier5 Freud was a psychologist?
fishfry April 09, 2021 at 22:20 #520820
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_prostitution

https://www.amazon.com/Prostitute-Studies-Jungian-Psychology-Analysts/dp/0919123317

Quoting Olivier5
Freud wrote about sex, perhaps a little too much.


"Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar." -- William Jefferson Clinton
180 Proof April 10, 2021 at 06:08 #520930
Reply to James Riley Here's an informative SEP article titled "Sex and Sexuality":

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sex-sexuality/

Some philosophers who've engaged the topic (and its various modes or contexts) in ways which have affected me: Marquis de Sade, Schopenhauer, Russell, Bataille, de Beauvoir, Foucault, S. Firestone, Nussbaum ... and most recently Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy's The Ethical Slut (re: polyamoury).
counterpunch April 10, 2021 at 06:13 #520931
Sex and philosophy?

I keep dropping my book!