Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage: An Introduction

by Halwani; Raja

• ISBN13: 9780415993517
• ISBN10: 0415993512
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2010-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

How is love different from lust or infatuation? Do love and marriage really go together "like a horse and carriage"? Does sex have any necessary connection to either? And how important are love, sex, and marriage to a well-lived life? In this lively, lucid, and comprehensive textbook, Raja Halwani pursues the philosophical questions inherent in these three important aspects of human relationships, exploring, the nature, uses, and ethics of romantic love, sexuality, and marriage.

Author Biography

Raja Halwani is Professor of Philosophy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of Virtuous Liaisons: Care, Love, Sex, and Virtue Ethics, the editor of Sex and Ethics: Essays on Sexuality, Virtue, and the Good Life, and the co-author (with Tomis Kapitan) of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Philosophical Essays on Self-Determination, Terrorism, and the One-State Solution.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Love	p. 5
What Is Love?	p. 7
Three Types of Love	p. 7
Characterizing Romantic Love	p. 9
Romantic Love as an Emotion	p. 12
Generally Necessary Features of Romantic Love	p. 18
Romantic Love and Infatuation	p. 24
Summary	p. 27
Notes	p. 28
Further Reading	p. 28
Romantic Love	p. 29
Aristophanes on Union	p. 29
Nozick, Sable, and Solomon on Union	p. 32
Romantic Love and Robust Concern	p. 39
Sex and the Durability of Romantic Love	p. 48
Summary and Conclusion	p. 55
Notes	p. 56
Further Reading	p. 56
The Basis of Romantic Love	p. 57
Socrates's Speech in Praise of Love	p. 57
Loving for Reasons	p. 60
What Do We Love? Properties of the Beloved	p. 77
Different Types of Properties and Love's Durability and Depth	p. 82
Summary	p. 87
Notes	p. 88
Further Reading	p. 88
Love and Morality	p. 89
Love and Morality	p. 89
Moral Restrictions on Love	p. 102
The Prudentiality of Love	p. 111
Summary and Conclusion	p. 119
Notes	p. 120
Further Reading	p. 120
Sex	p. 121
What Is Sex?	p. 123
Defining Sexual Acts	p. 123
Defining Sexual Desire	p. 130
Defining Sexual Pleasure	p. 135
Casual Sex, Adultery, and Prostitution	p. 139
Notes	p. 151
Further Reading	p. 152
Sex, Pleasure, and Morality	p. 153
Sexual Pleasure and other Values of Sex Acts	p. 153
Consequentialism and Sex	p. 161
Virtues, Vices, and Sex	p. 177
Summary and Conclusion	p. 184
Notes	p. 185
Further Reading	p. 185
Sexual Objectification	p. 186
What Is Sexual Objectification?	p. 186
What Is Morally Wrong with Sexual Objectification?	p. 189
Nussbaum on Objectification	p. 194
Soble on Objectification	p. 197
Kant and Objectification	p. 200
Women and Pornography	p. 210
Summary and Conclusion	p. 224
Notes	p. 225
Further Reading	p. 226
Sexual Perversion and Fantasy	p. 227
Sexual Perversion	p. 227
Fantasy	p. 250
Notes	p. 255
Further Reading	p. 255
Marriage	p. 257
What Is Marriage?	p. 259
Defining Marriage	p. 259
Monogamy	p. 264
Notes	p. 274
Further Reading	p. 274
Controversies over Same-Sex Marriage	p. 275
Preliminaries	p. 275
The Natural Law Tradition	p. 276
The Slippery-Slope Argument	p. 284
The "Undermining Marriage" Argument	p. 293
Richard Mohr's Argument for Same-Sex Marriage	p. 294
Cheshire Calhoun's Argument for Same-Sex Marriage	p. 297
Claudia Card's Argument against Same-Sex Marriage	p. 300
The Assimilation and Cultural Injustice Arguments against Same-Sex Marriage	p. 305
The Political Question	p. 310
Conclusion	p. 312
Notes	p. 312
Further Reading	p. 313
Concluding Remarks	p. 314
Bibliography	p. 316
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.