Abstract
According to Raja Halwani in his recent book, Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage: An Introduction, “The virtue of temperance and the vice of intemperance are the virtue and the vice when it comes to sex and sexual activity because they hit at the core of the issues of sex, namely sexual desire itself.”1 The purpose of this chapter is to elaborate on this claim, critique parts of it, and suggest a fuller account of the virtues that pertain to sex.
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Notes
Halwani, R. (2010) Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage: An Introduction (New York and London: Routledge), 181.
Halwani, R. (2003) Virtuous Liaisons: Care, Love, Sex, and VirtueEthics (Chicago: Open Court).
Anscombe, G.E.M. (1958) “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy: The Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, 33/124, 1–19
Maclntyre, A. (1981) After Virtue: A Study of Moral Theory (London: Duckworth)
Hursthouse, R. (1999) On Virtue Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press), 28–31.
J. Oakley & D. Cocking (2001) Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles (New York: Cambridge University Press), 9–15.
Williams, B. (1981) “Persons, Character and Morality” in his Moral Luck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1–19
I elaborate on this in the first chapter of van Hooft, S. (2006) Understanding Virtue Ethics (Chesham, UK: Acumen).
Morgan, S. (2003) “Sex in the head”, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 20/1, 1–16.
Tallis, R. (2008) “The hunger for others”, in his Hunger (Stocksfield, UK: Acumen), 75–98.
Solomon, R.C. (1990) “Self, love and self-love”, in his Love: Emotion, Myth, & Metaphor (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), 148–161.
Nozick, R. (1989) “Love’s bond” in his The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations (New York: Simon and Schuster), 68–86.
Nagel, T. (1969) “Sexual perversion”, Journal of Philosophy, 66/1, 5–17.
Scruton, R. (1986) “Arousal” in his Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation (London: Phoenix), 16–35.
For a typical example, see Primoratz, I. (1999) Ethics and Sex (London: Routledge).
This is the position of the Catholic Church elaborated by Kolnai, A. (2005) Sexual Ethics: The Meaning and Foundations of Sexual Morality (London: Ashgate).
Blackburn, S. (2004) Lust (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Vannoy, R. (1980) Sex Without Love: A Philosophical Exploration (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books).
Simmel, G. (1978) “The typical relation between money and prostitution”, in his The Philosophy ofMoney (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), 376–380.
Scruton, R. (1986) Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation (London: Phoenix), 310–11.
Especially by Christian churches. See Tannahill, R. (1992) “The Christian church” in her Sex in History (Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House), 136–161.
Goldman, A.H. (1977) “Plain Sex”, Philosophy and Public Affairs 6/ 3, 267–287
Young, C.M. (1988) “Aristotle on Temperance”, The Philosophical Review, 97/4, 521–542.
Bataille, G. (1962) Eroticism, translated by Mary Dalwood (London, New York: Marion Boyars).
Foucault, M. (1985) The Use of Pleasure: Volume 2 of The History of Sexuality, translated by Robert Hurley, (London: Penguin Books), 47.
Swanton, C. (2003) Virtue Ethics: A Pluralist View (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 19.
Such respect would also preclude any of the forms of sexual objectification of the other described by Martha Nussbaum. Nussbaum, M. (1999) “Objectification” in her Sex & Social Justice (New York: Oxford University Press), 213–239.
Martin, M.W. (1996) “Caring”, in his Love’s Virtues (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas).
Ricoeur, P. (1970) “Wonder, eroticism, and enigma” in HendrikM. Ruitenbeek, editor, Sexuality and Identity (New York: Dell), 13–24
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© 2013 Stan van Hooft
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van Hooft, S. (2013). Sex, Temperance, and Virtue. In: Austin, M.W. (eds) Virtues in Action. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137280299_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137280299_5
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