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10The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 8th edition (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield. 2022.This is the 8th edition of the book, with eight new essays to the volume. Table of contents: Are We Having Sex Now or What? (Greta Christina); Sexual Perversion (Thomas Nagel); Plain Sex (Alan Goldman); Sex and Sexual Perversion (Robert Gray); Masturbation and the Continuum of Sexual Activities (Alan Soble); Love: What’s Sex Got to Do with It? (Natasha McKeever); Is “Loving More” Better? The Values of Polyamory (Elizabeth Brake); What Is Sexual Orientation? (Robin Dembroff); Sexual Orientation: …Read more
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10The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 7th edition (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield. 2017.
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58Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1980.This book's thirty essays explore philosophically the nature and morality of sexual perversion, cybersex, masturbation, homosexuality, contraception, same-sex marriage, promiscuity, pedophilia, date rape, sexual objectification, teacher-student relationships, pornography, and prostitution. Authors include Martha Nussbaum, Thomas Nagel, Alan Goldman, John Finnis, Sallie Tisdale, Robin West, Alan Wertheimer, John Corvino, Cheshire Calhoun, Jerome Neu, and Alan Soble, among others. A valuable resou…Read more
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24Prolegomena to the Study of LovePhilosophies 8 (3): 44. 2023.Consider this propositional function which includes the dyadic predicate “loves”: “X does not love Y unless Y loves X” (or “if Y does not love X”). This function may be treated in four ways. (1) If universally quantified, it states a (purported) conceptual truth about “love” or the nature or essence of love. Love is necessarily reciprocal. (2) If universally quantified, it may alternatively be a nomological generalization stating an empirical or factual truth about human nature, i.e., about a pa…Read more
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43The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1980.Featuring twenty-nine essays, thirteen of which are new to this edition, this best-selling volume examines the nature, morality, and social meanings of contemporary sexual phenomena. Topics include sexual desire, masturbation, sex on the Internet, homosexuality, transgender and transsexual issues, marriage, consent, exploitation, objectification, rape, pornography, promiscuity, and prostitution
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Sexual Gifts and Sexual DutiesIn Raja Halwani, Jacob M. Held, Natasha McKeever & Alan G. Soble (eds.), The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 8th edition, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 539-556. 2022.Relying on a sexual encounter that he had once while in graduate school, Soble explores in this essay two important and under-explored ideas in sexual ethics. The first is whether there are sexual duties to others (including, even especially, to strangers), and what the source of such duties might be. He provides good reasons, rooted in both religious and secular thought, for believing that such duties exist. The second is whether there are supererogatory sexual actions—sexual actions that go be…Read more
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Sexual UseIn Raja Halwani, Jacob M. Held, Natasha McKeever & Alan G. Soble (eds.), The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 8th edition, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 395-421. 2022.In this essay, Soble addresses the various attempts in the philosophical literature to solve the "Kantian sex problem"—people's mere instrumental use of each other (and allowing themselves to be used as such by others) during sexual activity and the diminishing of one's sexual rationality and autonomy when experiencing sexual desire. The problem won't be solved by denying Kant's account of sexuality or the validity of his Formula of Humanity, but by fashioning a sexual ethics consistent with Kan…Read more
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1Masturbation and the Continuum of Sexual ActivitiesIn Raja Halwani, Jacob M. Held, Natasha McKeever & Alan G. Soble (eds.), The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 8th edition, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 69-93. 2022.Some philosophical accounts imply that masturbation is inferior sexual activity. Against this, Soble argues that masturbation is central. Relying on the physical-anatomical indistinguishability of sexual act-types, he derives a Zeno-style paradox about sexual activity: either all sexual activity (even ordinary coitus) is masturbatory or none of it is (not even solitary masturbation). Soble argues for the first horn of the dilemma, thus ensuring that solitary masturbation is a member of the conti…Read more
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23The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1980.This best-selling volume examines the nature, morality, and social meanings of contemporary sexual phenomena. Updated and new discussion questions offer students starting points for debate in both the classroom and the bedroom.
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36The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1980.This best-selling volume examines the nature, morality, and social meanings of contemporary sexual phenomena. Updated and new discussion questions offer students starting points for debate in both the classroom and the bedroom.
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6Review of Love’s Confusions, by C. D. C. Reeve (review)Essays in Philosophy 7 (1): 146-157. 2006.
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46Letters to the EditorProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 65 (5). 1992.
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29Reviews of Feyerabend's Critique of Foundationalism George Couvalis, 1989 Aldershot, Avebury Press x+158 pp., hardback, ISBN 0 566 07043 X Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking From Women's Lives Sandra Harding, 1991 Buckingham, Open University Press xii + 319pp (review)International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 6 (2): 155-162. 1992.
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67Physical Attractiveness and Unfair DiscriminationInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 1 (1): 37-64. 1982.
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42Ann Ferguson,sexual democracy: Women, oppression, and revolution (review)Journal of Value Inquiry 27 (2): 261-270. 1993.
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1Vetterling-Braggin, Mary, ed., "Sexist Language: A Modern Philosophical Analysis" (review)Ethics 93 (n/a): 212. 1982.
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36Book Review:Rights, Killing, and Suffering. R. G. Frey; Animals and Why They Matter. Mary Midgley; The Case for Animal Rights. Tom Regan (review)Ethics 96 (1): 192-. 1985.
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11The natural, the social, and historical materialismPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 46 (1): 139-154. 1985.
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4Irving Singer, The Nature of Love, Volume 3. The Modern World Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 8 (2): 74-76. 1988.
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77Concerning Self-LoveEssays in Philosophy 12 (1): 55-67. 2011.In The Reasons of Love, Harry Frankfurt proposes a philosophical account of love according to which there are four necessary conditions for the occurrence of love. We may ask reasonable questions about these four conditions: (1) Is each condition adequately analytically defined? (2) Is each condition plausibly a necessary condition for love, and has Frankfurt defended their necessity with good arguments? (3) Are all four conditions consistent with each other? And (4) if the four conditions are o…Read more
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48Paternalism, Liberal Theory, and SuicideCanadian Journal of Philosophy 12 (2). 1982.A principle of paternalism must be able to answer three questions. Who are the persons who are the proper object of paternalism? Which actions should we prevent persons from doing or induce them to perform? What should our goals be when acting paternalistically toward these persons? A satisfactory principle will also be reasonably precise in distinguishing appropriate from inappropriate instances of paternalism, and it will be comprehensive, speaking to most potential cases, including suicide. M…Read more
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34Bad Apples: Feminist Politics and Feminist ScholarshipPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 29 (3): 354-388. 1999.Some exceptional and surprising mistakes of scholarship made in the writings of a number of feminist academics (Ruth Bleier, Ruth Hubbard, Susan Bordo, Sandra Harding, and Rae Langton) are examined in detail. This essay offers the psychological hypothesis that these mistakes were the result of political passion and concludes with some remarks about the ability of the social sciences to study the effect of the politics of the researcher on the quality of his or her research.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |