Animal desire and rational nature: Kant’s argument for marriage and the problem of ‘unnatural’ sex


Brecher, Martin



DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111291130-004
URL: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.151...
Document Type: Book chapter
Year of publication: 2023
Book title: Kant on sex, love, and friend­ship
The title of a journal, publication series: Kant-Studien / Ergänzungshefte
Volume: 222
Page range: 35-61
Publisher: Rinne, Pärttyli ; Brecher, Martin
Place of publication: Berlin [u.a.]
Publishing house: de Gruyter
ISBN: 978-3-11-129089-8 , 978-3-11-129113-0 , 978-3-11-129142-0
ISSN: 0340-6059
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Publication language: English
Institution: School of Humanities > Philosophie II (Gesang 2009-)
Subject: 100 Philosophy
Abstract: While many interpreters endorse both Kant’s worry about objectifying tendencies in human sexuality and his argument that legal marriage can avert sexual objectification, they at the same time reject Kant’s notorious and spurious claim that sexual acts are moral only if in line with the ‘natural end’ of procreation, while ‘unnatural’ sex would violates our humanity. However, from an exegetical point of view, such a divisional approach is unconvincing. I shall argue that, for Kant, both the problem of sexual objectification and the (as Kant sees it) problem of ‘unnatural’ sex stem from a single root: the specific character of sexual desire and action. Kant’s views about the moral problems of sex result from his anthropological theory of sexuality as part of our ‘animality’, and they cannot be partitioned as easily. Consequently, proponents of Kantian arguments for same-sex marriage need to undertake more radical revisions of Kant’s theory of sexuality.




Dieser Eintrag ist Teil der Universitätsbibliographie.




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ORCID: Brecher, Martin ORCID: 0009-0009-2016-7741 ["search_editors_ORCID" not defined] Rinne, Pärttyli ; Brecher, Martin ORCID: 0009-0009-2016-7741

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