1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality
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.
Introduction
Clare Chambers, Brian D. Earp, Lori Watson
Part I: What is Sex? Is Sex Good?
1. What is a Sexual Act?
Kristina Gupta
2. Eroticisms in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Sara Johnsdotter
3. The Value of Sex
Sam Shpall
4. Is There a Right to Sex?
John Danaher
5. The Concept and Significance of Virginity
Neil McArthur
Part II: Sexual Orientations
6. What is a Sexual Orientation?
Lisa M. Diamond
7. Sexual Orientation, Sexual Desires, and Choice
E. Diáz-León
8. Queer and Straight
Matthew Andler
9 Asexuality
A.W. Eaton and Bailey Szustak
10. Feminist Heterosexuality
Christie Hartley
11. Heterosexual Male Sexuality: A Positive Vision
Shaun Miller
12. Radical Feminist Analysis of Heterosexuality
Jessica Joy Cameron
13. Lesbian Feminism
Finn Mackay
Part III: Sexual Autonomy and Consent
14. Flirting
Lucy McDonald
15. Sex and Consent
Karamvir Chadha
16. Beyond Consent
Susan J. Brison
17. Sexual Autonomy, Consent, and Reproductive Control
Mianna Lotz
18. Sexual Practices and Relationships Among Young People
Kate Ott and Lauren D. Sawyer
19. Sex and Disability
Tom Shakespeare
20. Sexual Consent, Aging, and Dementia
Andria Bianchi
Part IV: Regulating Sexual Relationships
21. Monogamy: Government Policy
Stephen Macedo and Peter de Marneffe
22. Plural Marriage and Equality
Lori Watson
23. Sex, Marriage, and Race
Robin Zheng
24. The Ethics of Relationship Anarchy
Ole Martin Moen and Alexander Sørlie
Part V: Pathologizing Sex and Sexuality
25. The Eugenic Logic of Sexual Normality
Tara M. Dankel
26. "Disordering" Sex Through Medicine
Katarzyna Grunt-Mejer
27. Religion and Sexual Shame
Krista K. Thomason
28. Homophobia and Conversion 'Therapies'
Sean Aas and Candice Delmas
Part VI: Contested Desires
29. The Ethics and Politics of Sexual Preference
Gulzaar Barn
30. BDSM
Manon Garcia
31. Critiquing Consensual Adult Incest
Natasha McKeever
32. Pedophilia
Agustín Malón
Part VII: Objectification and Commercialized Sex
33. Sexual Objectification
Patricia Mariño
34. The Civil-Rights Approach to Pornography
John Stoltenberg
35. Pornography and the "Sex Wars"
Mari Mikkola
36. The Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work
Jessica Flanigan
37. An Equality Approach to Prostitution
Lori Watson
Part VIII: Technology and the Future of Sex
38. The Ethics of Matching: Hookup Apps and Online Dating
Michal Klincewicz, Lily E. Frank, and Emma A. Jane
39. The Ethics of Humanoid Sex Robots
Sven Nyholm
40. Sex and Emergent Technologies
Robbie Arrell
Biography
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).
