Readings
Texts
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Introduction
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Chapter 1
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Chapter 2
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Chapter 3
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Chapter 4
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Chapter 5
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Chapter 6
- Simon Blackburn, "Lust", Notes
Additional Readings
Quiz Questions
- How does Blackburn argue that "we must not allow the critics of lust to intrude the notion of excess"?
- What are the deleterious consequences of the Christian Panic to which Blackburn points? What further consequences can you describe?
- How does the issue of self-control figure in the Christian Panic?
Synopsis
Today we turned to the concept of lust. I suppose exploring lust is the inevitable bridge between our discussions about love and our upcoming discussions about matters sexual. Our guide for this discussion is no less than Blackburn's contribution to the seven deadly sins series, "Lust". I find Blackburn's little book to be as fine an example of philosophy written for a wide audience as I can imagine. It is extraordinarily clear, cogent, stylistically impressive, and, frankly, fun. I hope you agree. Next to Plato, it is perhaps the most accessible text we have before us this semester.
As with love, romantic or otherwise, the characteristic of lust is the experience of lust. Yet asserting that lust is a desire for sex simpliciter cannot, as Blackburn takes great care to point out, be right. After all, as we described in class, there are many reasons we might desire sex, yet only some of these reasons might have any bearing whatsoever on lust. For example, we might desire sex because it:
- Gives us pleasure,
- Relieves boredom,
- Exercises us,
- Earns us money and/or favors,
- Brings us closer,
- Alleviates headaches,
- Helps us achieve orgasm,
- Alleviates menstrual cramps,
- Helps us procreate,
- Lets us get revenge,
- Gives us self-confidence, or
- Advances our careers.
Yet lust seems hardly a good description of an attempt to relieve boredom--a luke-warm rationale at best. Even getting us to orgasm seems wrong-headed, since we might in fact do all we can in having sex to avoid orgasm as long as possible.
Our discussion, which was vigorous and insightful, led us to much the same framework Blackburn adopts. That is to say,
Lust is the enthusiastic, whole-body, felt desire for the pleasures of sexual activity for their own sake.
Thus using sex to burn calories, make rent money, or even get rid of a headache have nothing to do with lust. To be sure, lust is compatible with all of these things, but that is not, it seems, how we should think of lust.
The fierce nature of lust, the way it can grab hold of us, distract us, and lead us into all manner of delightful foolishness, has earned lust a terrible reputation. We will discuss this reputation further next time and take up Blackburn's arguments to rehabilitate lust. In particular, we will examine how best to understand the point of these pleasures of sexual activity at which lust is directed as ends in themselves.
Put another way, given the way lust occupies our minds, such that when we experience it, it is virtually all we have room to experience, and when we do not, we do everything in our power to bring it back, the pleasures of sexual activity at which lust is directed must themselves be pretty important. It is in the surprisingly sophisticated nature of those pleasures where Blackburn will finally rest his defence of lust.