1st Edition
Sexual Ethics in a Secular Age Is There Still a Virtue of Chastity?
This collection features essays from top experts in ethics and philosophy of love that offer varying perspectives on the value of a contemporary secular virtue of chastity.
The virtue of chastity has traditionally been portrayed as an excellent personal disposition concerning the ideal ordering of sexual desire such that the person desires that which is actually good for both the self and others affected by his or her sexual desires and actions. Yet, for roughly the past half century chastity has been increasingly portrayed as an unnecessary ideal with few secular benefits that could not be otherwise obtained. Instead, chastity is sometimes portrayed as an odd kind of religious asceticism with few secular benefits. The essays in this volume ask whether there may be advantages to reconsidering a contemporary virtue of chastity. A recovered and reconceptualized concept of chastity can offer partial solutions to problems associated with externalized sexual desire, including sweeping patterns of sexual harassment, the high divorce/relationship-failure rate, and widespread pornography use.
Sexual Ethics in a Secular Age will appeal to researchers and advanced students interested in the philosophy of sex and love, virtue ethics, and philosophical accounts of secularity.
Section I: Visions of Contemporary Chastity
1. Chastity and the Well-Lived Life
Jennifer A. Herdt
2. Sexuality as Secularly Sacred
Alexander R. Pruss
3. Contemporary Chastity Still Consists in Principles of Temperance, Justice, and Prudence
Eric J. Silverman
4. Chastity, Lust, and Practical Wisdom
Michael Beaty
Section II: The Limits and Dangers of Chastity
5. Is Chastity a Virtue?
Alan H. Goldman
6. Chastity, Power Dynamics, and Enduring Spousal Love
R. Mary Hayden Lemmons
Section III: Culturally Contextualized Expressions of Chastity
7. Finding Chastity in a Secular Age: Chastity as a Virtue of Sexual Autonomy
Nancy E. Snow
8. Cephalus: A Quotidian Case for Chastity in Republic I
Kevin Kambo
9. The Family as the Foundation of the Confucian Ethical Order
Benjamin Huff
Section IV: Chastity and Objectification
10. Sexual Temperance and Sexual Objectification
Raja Halwani
11. Objectification, Indication, and Chastity
Dustin Crummett
Section V: Specific Applications of Chastity
12. Chastity in the Workplace
Chris Tweedt
13. A Renewed Chastity for a New Era: An Aretaic Response to Contemporary Pornography
Joseph Prud’homme
Biography
Eric J. Silverman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Christopher Newport University. He has written two monographs: The Supremacy of Love: An Agape Centered Vision of Aristotelian Virtue Ethics (2019) and The Prudence of Love: How Possessing the Virtue of Love Benefits the Agent (2010). He has also co-edited Paradise Understood: New Philosophical Essays About Heaven (2017).
"Chastity is a virtue easily misunderstood. To a secular ear it sounds outdated, old-fashioned, and paternalistic. This collection of essays offers a fresh and valuable perspective on the virtue of chastity in a secular age. The contributors provide insightful positions on the strengths and weaknesses of chastity while elucidating its role as a guiding virtue for sexual activity." – Audra Goodnight, Villanova University, USA
