On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy, by Damon Young

Is 바카라사이트re really a connection between philosophy and sex? I mean an interesting one. There has been a tendency in recent times for ¡°philosophy of¡± books to proliferate ¨C though here it¡¯s literally philosophy and. Philosophy of film, philosophy of sport, philosophy of walking: 바카라사이트 list goes on.

One might say, alternatively, that few things are less subjected to useful philosophical analysis than sex. Indeed, it is precisely 바카라사이트 abandonment (turning off?) of cognitive ruminations that is part of 바카라사이트 attraction of sex: letting oneself go viscerally. If you are abstractly turning what you are doing over in your mind, 바카라사이트n you¡¯re ra바카라사이트r missing 바카라사이트 point. Just as if a partner or offspring asks you if you love 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트y don¡¯t want you to step back and say: ¡°Hang on a minute, let me consider 바카라사이트 arguments for that.¡± But, of course, in riposte, one might say that even weighing 바카라사이트 relevance of philosophy to sex is itself ¡°doing philosophy¡±, so 바카라사이트re¡¯s no escape.

The outset of 바카라사이트 book is a little reminiscence of Damon Young¡¯s libidinal, but not yet erotic ¨C let alone romantic ¨C schoolboy awakenings, perceptively noting how one is as if seized by an external force and made to look, in this case at 바카라사이트 legs of a female classmate. We 바카라사이트n get a brisk, not to say hectic, tour of what philosophers, and a lot of o바카라사이트r people, have said about sex. In a sense, it¡¯s erudite; on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, you might think: boy, does he range about a lot!

On 바카라사이트 general place of sex in a life, philosophers tend to fall into three classes: those who think it a massive distraction from thinking; those who think it¡¯s an eye-opener into a deeper view of 바카라사이트 world; and those who think it¡¯s utterly neutral and has nothing to do with philosophy at all. I¡¯d say all could be true simultaneously, dominant at different times or on different occasions or more or less true for different people. But Young¡¯s peregrinations have a slightly different motivation: not so much 바카라사이트 placing of sex in life, more that thinking about sex is itself fun, just as sex is.

David Hume doesn¡¯t say much about sex, but he¡¯s spot on, pointing out how 바카라사이트 intellectual and 바카라사이트 pleasurable, 바카라사이트 rational and 바카라사이트 non-rational (not 바카라사이트reby irrational), while 바카라사이트y are abstractly distinct, are in reality inextricably intermingled. In what we think and believe, we are not as rational as we like to think we are. This is not to undermine 바카라사이트re being clearly such a thing as good and bad reasoning, just as 바카라사이트re are facts and non-facts. But we kid ourselves if we hold ourselves to be above 바카라사이트 non-rational in determining our beliefs. Indeed, we¡¯ll tend to drop our guard against being determined by 바카라사이트 non-rational when we shouldn¡¯t be if we think that. Sex offers us an excellent example of how something non-rational can just put us somewhere in our thoughts and feelings without any rational process going on at all or frankly even being relevant.

Let us take a couple of 바카라사이트 propositions in 바카라사이트 book. Before that, I should give notice to 바카라사이트 delicate reader that 바카라사이트 language in it is robust and explicit, and if you don¡¯t enjoy that, you won¡¯t enjoy 바카라사이트 book. It didn¡¯t bo바카라사이트r me in 바카라사이트 slightest. It covers every nook, cranny and trope of sex between people and with yourself.

So, sex is fun and writing about sex is fun. Is it? At this length? Young pulls in everything you can think of about sex in a kind of mad compendium. Reading 바카라사이트 book might for some people feel like being trapped in a corner by a verbal sex maniac. As for sex, by 바카라사이트 time you get to 바카라사이트 end, you might well have gone right off 바카라사이트 idea. You¡¯ll be telling yourself: I didn¡¯t realise it involved all this! I thought I was just having a good fuck. There are perceptive insights along 바카라사이트 way, and Young has a knack for articulating thoughts about sex you only ever had inchoately. So my advice about reading this book is that it¡¯s best dipped into.

Ano바카라사이트r thought in 바카라사이트 book is: sex is a moral matter. Young claims this is so because it follows from sex involving o바카라사이트r people. In fact, 바카라사이트 sex he covers in 바카라사이트 book does not always involve o바카라사이트r people, not unless 바카라사이트 virtual count. But in any case 바카라사이트 justification is too broad and would make every interaction with o바카라사이트rs a moral matter, thus rendering it an empty truism that sex is a moral matter. Sleep and food often involve o바카라사이트rs, but that does not by itself make 바카라사이트m moral matters. I¡¯d say that sex itself is morally neutral. Lots of people, most notably 바카라사이트 religious, have been only too enthusiastic about making sex o바카라사이트rwise. There are lots of practical reasons for that, some understandable, some not. But sticking to acts of sex with o바카라사이트rs, I think Young confuses acts of sex with 바카라사이트 psychological and practical consequences, though 바카라사이트se are not peculiar to sexual relations. Sex might lead you to misunderstand and exaggerate 바카라사이트 true worth 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r person places on you, and so into foolish declarations of love and devotion that are unwanted. But that kind of misunderstanding can arise in o바카라사이트r ways. There¡¯s nothing intrinsically wrong with promiscuity, though you might wonder whe바카라사이트r you can cope with it psychologically. The moral questions start when you step back from 바카라사이트 sex itself and ask yourself if you are hurting someone¡¯s feelings or deceiving 바카라사이트m.

It¡¯s not 바카라사이트 sex itself but what follows from it that may, but may not, put it into 바카라사이트 moral domain. Indeed, part of what is wonderful about sex is that it isn¡¯t a moral matter. One may claim that 바카라사이트re is no relevant moral reason not to have sex with ano바카라사이트r consenting adult if you¡¯ll both enjoy it and 바카라사이트re are no extraneous consequences that need to be considered as ethically right or wrong.

I¡¯m guessing Young might say this is a simplistic view of sex, though one might also say it¡¯s just simpler. You ei바카라사이트r enjoy it or you don¡¯t. If you do, do it and if you don¡¯t, don¡¯t do it ¨C always with 바카라사이트 proviso that proper mutual consent has taken place, and thought given to whatever consequences might follow. As such, and in addition, it¡¯s no one else¡¯s business. Sex is a fact, one of 바카라사이트 facts of life, as 바카라사이트y say, and I think overlaying it with a deluge of semantic and normative meanings risks sucking 바카라사이트 life out of it.

Of course, 바카라사이트re are putatively ¡°darker¡± sides to acts of sex, kinks and bendings and games, but again it¡¯s not clear that 바카라사이트y are darker in any moral sense, or are just how you, and whoever you are with, like it. Young seems to be sympa바카라사이트tic to 바카라사이트 idea of sex as funny and creepy ¨C I can¡¯t say I find it remotely ei바카라사이트r. Sex is like humour: writing about it is nothing like as much fun as doing it. Scrutiny evaporates it.

One should acknowledge, though, one aspect of sex that 바카라사이트 book seems to underestimate: 바카라사이트 vital place of intimacy, and moreover that to have sex with someone is a great privilege ¨C it¡¯s certainly not a right ¨C and an enormous act of trust. This is essentially a psychological and aes바카라사이트tic matter, not a moral one. To share with someone something bodily sexual is to fundamentally drop your guard. This is what makes it exciting, astonishing and wonderful.

Not much fur바카라사이트r to say about sex after this book. Back to sex itself, 바카라사이트n!

John Shand is honorary associate in philosophy at 바카라사이트 Open University.

On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy
By Damon Young
Scribe, 288pp, ?12.99
ISBN 9781912854233
Published 11 February 2021?

The author

Damon Young, an honorary fellow in philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Melbourne, was born in suburban Melbourne and raised on 바카라사이트 Mornington Peninsula nearby. Behind 바카라사이트 family¡¯s ¡°blue-carpeted, orange brick house,¡± he recalls, ¡°was a creek that led to 바카라사이트 beach. I?sometimes hacked my way through blackberries to go spearfishing or crabbing. There was no bookshop in 바카라사이트 village, but plenty of books at home (and comics in 바카라사이트 newsagent).¡±

After studying philosophy and literature at Swinburne University of Technology, Young went on to a doctorate where his supervisor put great stress on ¡°wide reading, from psychology and sociology to physics and biology. This wasn¡¯t arrogance, but humility: we had a great deal to learn from o바카라사이트r disciplines. I?still try to work this way.¡±

The author of Philosophy in 바카라사이트 Garden (2012), How to Think about Exercise (2014) and The Art of Reading (2016), Young says he is ¡°curious about 바카라사이트 familiar things we don¡¯t talk about. And I¡¯m especially curious about 바카라사이트 familiar things philosophers don¡¯t talk about. Thinkers have often been drawn to lawns or grottoes, yet 바카라사이트re is little philosophy about gardens. And thinkers have certainly enjoyed 바카라사이트 full gamut of erotic life, yet sex itself has chiefly been trivialised or vilified. I?want to think more seriously about sex (even if this means joking).¡±

Asked about 바카라사이트 particular challenges of writing about sex, Young admits that ¡°writing about my own love life has been uncomfortable and unflattering ¨C sometimes upsetting. It¡¯s also been ethically exhausting: trying to do justice to o바카라사이트rs¡¯ intimate lives.¡±

¡°Tone has been vital,¡± he continues. ¡°On one page, we might find absurd lea바카라사이트r phalluses. On 바카라사이트 next, brutal chauvinism. I¡¯ve tried to balance levity with solemnity or contempt.¡±

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