Sex, Love, and Gender

Abstract

This book provides a comprehensive account of sex, love, and gender—the first of its kind—by engaging a seemingly unlikely ally: Immanuel Kant. To date, no scholar has considered Kant’s potential contributions to such an account; nor is this surprising. Kant explicitly views sexual activity as inherently morally problematic, maintaining as ethically permissible only heterosexual procreative sexual activity within the confines of legal marriage. Kant’s comments on sex, love, and gender are also diffused throughout his practical works—from his works on ethics and legal-political thought, to his works on aesthetics, teleology, history, religion, and anthropology—presenting a textual and philosophical obstacle to reconciling his accounts of human nature and of human rights and freedom into an integrated whole. Sex, Love, and Gender—A Kantian Theory takes on these challenges. It offers an innovative interpretation of Kant’s account of sex, love, and gender, which shows how his disparate references can be seen as parts of one coherent philosophical approach. The book also rehabilitates Kant’s theory by overcoming the philosophical mistakes and limitations of Kant’s own writings. The result is a philosophical understanding of the phenomenology of sex, love, and gender and core related moral (ethical and legal) issues such as sexual orientation, abortion, sexual or gender identity, marriage, erotica, sexual oppression, and trade in sexual services.

The Masturbator and the Ban

“…As Helga Varden noted, Kant's faith in the institution of marriage was so strong that he declared that "[a]ll other forms of sexuality are corruptions of our nature resulting from our propensity to evil." 85 In his lectures, Kant casted a wide net and instructed his pupils that "[a] crimen carnis is a misuse of the sexual impulse. Every use of it outside the state of wedlock is a misuse of it, or crimen carnis."…”

Perleporten – et post-brechtiansk teater?

“…I en samtale 7. desember 2015 forteller Varden at den frie gruppen Teatret Utenfor ble stiftet i 1969, i forbindelse med okkupasjonen av Vaterland skole og det motkulturelle kulturhuset som ble stiftet der. 22 På samme tid hadde Varden ulike regijobber på Nationaltheatret. Da teatersjefen der, Arild Brinchmann, tilbød Varden og Teateret Utenfor muligheter for å arbeide innenfor institusjonen som et oppsøkende gruppeteater, ble den frie gruppen lagt ned.…”

“…Deres nedleggelse var en naturlig konsekvens av den manglende kulturpolitiske støtten til frie grupper på 1960tallet. 23 Dessuten fikk Varden arbeide forholdsvis fritt på Nationaltheatret, han kunne selv bestemme repertoaret og arbeidsformen for gruppen. 24 En slik semi-institusjonell tilknytning var utelukket for Perleporten Teatergruppe.…”

“…23 Dessuten fikk Varden arbeide forholdsvis fritt på Nationaltheatret, han kunne selv bestemme repertoaret og arbeidsformen for gruppen. 24 En slik semi-institusjonell tilknytning var utelukket for Perleporten Teatergruppe. De var en del av den nye bevegelsen av frie grupper som anså det som essensielt å vaere nettopp «frie» for å kunne skape det kunstneriske uttrykket de selv ville.…”

A Reply to Clark Wolf, Elizabeth Edenberg, and Helga Varden

“…Varden (2020) has developed Kant's account of private right into a powerful theoretical framework with which to secure the rights of all individuals. 'Private right,' as Varden develops it, is distinct from our claims on institutions as well as from the moral demands of particular relationships(Varden, 2012).…”