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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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54Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary ReadingsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2007.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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20Prolegomena 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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39The 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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31The 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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21The 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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5Review of Love’s Confusions, by C. D. C. Reeve (review)Essays in Philosophy 7 (1): 146-157. 2006.
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44Letters 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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19Book Review: Joan McGregor. Is It Rape? On Acquaintance Rape and Taking Women’s Consent Seriously, Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2005. Pp. x + 267. ISBN 0-7546-5066-9. $99.95, cloth; $29.95, paper (review)Law and Philosophy 25 (6): 663-672. 2006.
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1836Philosophy of sexualityInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009.This encyclopedia article on the philosophy of sexuality discusses the main themes, concepts, and debates in the field, including the metaphysics (or philosophical anthropology) of sex, the morality of sexual behavior, pragmatic and utilitarian evaluations of sexuality, and sexual perversion.
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389Philosophy of Love: A Partial Summing-UpMIT Press. 2009.In 1984, Irving Singer published the first volume of what would become a classic and much acclaimed trilogy on love. Trained as an analytical philosopher, Singer first approached his subject with the tools of current philosophical methodology. Dissatisfied by the initial results, he turned to the history of ideas in philosophy and the arts for inspiration. He discovered an immensity of speculation and artistic practice that reached wholly beyond the parameters he had been trained to consider tru…Read more
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5Union, Autonomy, and ConcernIn Roger E. Lamb (ed.), Love Analyzed, Westview Press. pp. 65--92. 1997.
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2140Antioch's “Sexual Offense Policy”: A Philosophical ExplorationJournal of Social Philosophy 28 (1): 22-36. 1997.An analytic investigation of Antioch's "Sexual Offense Policy."
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8756In defense of BaconPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 25 (2): 192-215. 1995.Feminist science critics, in particular Sandra Harding, Carolyn Merchant, and Evelyn Fox Keller, claim that misogynous sexual metaphors played an important role in the rise of modern science. The writings of Francis Bacon have been singled out as an especially egregious instance of the use of misogynous metaphors in scientific philosophy. This paper offers a defense of Bacon.
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963The Coherence of LovePhilosophy and Theology 12 (2): 293-315. 2000.I examine three common beliefs about love: constancy, exclusivity, and the claim that love is a response to the properties of the beloved. Following a discussion of their relative consistency, I argue that neither the constancy nor the exclusivity of love are saved by the contrary belief, that love is not (entirely) a response to the properties of the beloved.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |