Read more
This Handbook covers the most urgent, controversial, and important topics in the philosophy of sex. It is both philosophically rigorous and yet accessible to specialists and non-specialists, covering ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language, and featuring interactions with neighboring disciplines such as psychology, bioethics, sociology, and anthropology.
The volume's 40 chapters, written by an international team of both respected senior researchers and essential emerging scholars, are divided into eight parts:
I. What is Sex? Is Sex Good?
II. Sexual Orientations
III. Sexual Autonomy and Consent
IV. Regulating Sexual Relationships
V. Pathologizing Sex and Sexuality
VI. Contested Desires
VII. Objectification and Commercialized Sex
VIII. Technology and the Future of Sex
The broad scope of coverage, depth in insight and research, and accessibility in language make The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality a comprehensive introduction for newcomers to the subject as well as an invaluable reference work for advanced students and researchers in the field.
List of contents
Introduction 1. What is a Sexual Act? 2. Eroticisms in Cross-Cultural Perspective 3. The Value of Sex 4. Is There a Right to Sex? 5. The Concept and Significance of Virginity 6. What is a Sexual Orientation? 7. Sexual Orientation, Sexual Desires, and Choice 8. Queer and Straight 9. Asexuality 10. Feminist Heterosexuality 11. Heterosexual Male Sexuality: A Positive Vision 12. Radical Feminist Analysis of Heterosexuality 13. Lesbian Feminism 14. Flirting 15. Sex and Consent 16. Beyond Consent 17. Sexual Autonomy, Consent, and Reproductive Control 18. Sexual Practices and Relationships Among Young People 19. Sex and Disability 20. Sexual Consent, Aging, and Dementia 21. Monogamy: Government Policy 22. Plural Marriage and Equality 23. Sex, Marriage, and Race 24. The Ethics of Relationship Anarchy 25. The Eugenic Logic of Sexual Normality 26. "Disordering" Sex Through Medicine 27. Religion and Sexual Shame 28. Homophobia and Conversion 'Therapies' 29. The Ethics and Politics of Sexual Preference 30. BDSM 31. Critiquing Consensual Adult Incest 32. Pedophilia 33. Sexual Objectification 34. The Civil-Rights Approach to Pornography 35. Pornography and the "Sex Wars" 36. The Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work 37. An Equality Approach to Prostitution 38. The Ethics of Matching: Hookup Apps and Online Dating 39. The Ethics of Humanoid Sex Robots 40. Sex and Emergent Technologies
About the author
Brian D. Earp is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and bioethicist with interests in gender, sex, sexuality, and related topics. Brian is Associate Director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University and The Hastings Center, and Senior Research Fellow in Moral Psychology at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. With Julian Savulescu, Brian is co-author of Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships (Stanford UP, 2020).
Clare Chambers is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body (Allen Lane, 2022), Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford UP, 2017), and Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State UP, 2008).
Lori Watson is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in Saint Louis. She is the co-author, with Patrick Hurley, of A Concise Introduction to Logic, 13th ed. (Cengage, 2016); with Christie Hartley, of Equal Citizenship and Public Reason: A Feminist Political Liberalism (Oxford UP, 2018); with Andrew Altman, of Debating Pornography (Oxford UP, 2019); and, with Jessica Flanigan, of Debating Sex Work (Oxford UP, 2019).
Summary
This Handbook covers the most urgent, controversial, and important topics in the philosophy of sex. It is both philosophically rigorous and yet accessible to specialists and non-specialists, covering ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language.
