Lust: The Seven Deadly SinsLust, says Simon Blackburn, is furtive, headlong, always sizing up opportunities. It is a trail of clothing in the hallway, the trashy cousin of love. But be that as it may, the aim of this delightful book is to rescue lust "from the denunciations of old men of the deserts, to deliver it from the pallid and envious confessor and the stocks and pillories of the Puritans, to drag it from the category of sin to that of virtue." Blackburn, author of such popular philosophy books as Think and Being Good, here offers a sharp-edged probe into the heart of lust, blending together insight from some of the world's greatest thinkers on sex, human nature, and our common cultural foibles. Blackburn takes a wide ranging, historical approach, discussing lust as viewed by Aristophanes and Plato, lust in the light of the Stoic mistrust of emotion, and the Christian fear of the flesh that catapulted lust to the level of deadly sin. He describes how philosophical pessimists like Schopenhauer and Sartre contributed to our thinking about lust and explores the false starts in understanding lust represented by Freud, Kinsey, and modern "evolutionary psychology." But most important, Blackburn reminds us that lust is also life-affirming, invigorating, fun. He points to the work of David Hume (Blackburn's favorite philosopher) who saw lust not only as a sensual delight but also "a joy of the mind." Written by one of the most eminent living philosophers, attractively illustrated and colorfully packaged, Lust is a book that anyone would lust over. |
Contents
1 | |
Desire | 13 |
Excess | 21 |
Two Problems from Plato | 29 |
Stiff Upper Lips | 41 |
The Christian Panic | 49 |
The Legacy | 65 |
What Nature Intended | 69 |
Hobbesian Unity | 87 |
Disasters | 93 |
Substitutions | 103 |
Evolution and Desire | 111 |
Overcoming Pessimism | 127 |
Farewell | 133 |
NOTES | 135 |
143 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adapted appetite Aquinas Aristophanes Aristotle arousal Augustine Augustine’s Bayle beauty becomes black horse body Bronzino charioteer chimpanzees Christian communion context copulation culture Cupid David Hume degradation delight Diogenes disgust Dorothy Parker ecstatic finale English erotic Eunuchs for Heaven evolutionary psychologists excess excitement feel female Freud girls Hobbesian unity human Hume idea imagination intentionally left blank involuntary Kant kind lecture London lover lust male man’s marriage Martha Nussbaum Michael Frayn mind moral myth nature Nussbaum objectify Olivia Judson one’s Oxford University Press Paradise partner Penguin Perhaps person philosopher Phyllis Plato pleasures of sexual problem prostitute psychology reason reproduction Roger Scruton Sartre Scruton Seven Deadly Sins sexual activity sexual desire Shakespeare shame Simon Blackburn someone soul steak Stephen Pinker Stoics story Summa Theologiae supposed talk theology things thought trans venereal Venus virgins W. H. Auden William Shakespeare woman women