Advanced Philosophy
Sex Between Minds: A Human Stamp On Our Animality
Sexual games of power and love.
Why has there been so much more philosophizing about the meaning of death than about what’s hailed as the crowning joy of life, which is lovemaking? Have the world’s intellectuals been preoccupied with the ominous and the disconcerting? Or have they done us a favor by avoiding the topic of sex because it is as absurd as death?
The Emergence of Modern Shame
That question is ill-posed. For thousands of years, sex was quite transactional and meant relatively little because there was no widespread recognition of “personhood.” There were masters and slaves, locals and barbarians, elites and peasants, sons of God and heathens or heretics. But no common humanity and no overview of life’s evolution.
It’s only in the “modern” period, which arose after the collapse of the monarchical order, that we can properly understand sex. Only when we understand the difference between animals and people, based on knowledge of what life really is can we feel ashamed when we revert to animal reactions.
Prior to that science-centered explanation of nature, we assessed our worth against religious standards that were, arguably, projections. The gods were…
