Sexual Desire (book)

[...] Desire: A Philosophical Investigation is a 1986 book AbOUT the philosophy of [...] by Roger Scruton.

Summary

Scruton bases a conservative [...] ethic on the Hegelian proposition that "the final end of every rational being is the building of the self—of a recognisable personal entity, which flourishes according to its own autonomnous nature." This process involves recognizing the other as an end in itself. Scruton argues that the major feature of perversion is "[...] release that avoids or abolishes the other," which he sees as narcissistic and often solipsistic. His list of perversions includes masturbation, bestiality, necrophilia, pedophilia, sado-masochism, homosexuality, incest, and fetishism. Scruton considers homosexuality a perversion because it does not involve [...] difference: desire directed towards the other gender elicits its complement, but desire directed toward the same gender elicits its simulacrum. In his view, normal sexuality involves not only giving recognition to the other's person in and through desire for him or her, but also according them accountability and care in the process. Scruton criticizes psychoanalytic perspectives on sexuality.

Scholarly reception

[...] Desire is described by Alan Soble as "certainly by a long way the most interesting and insightful philosophical account of [...] desire produced by analytic philosophy", while Christopher Janaway notes that Scruton's work challenges the conventional boundaries of that branch of philosophy. Jonathan Dollimore sees Scruton's philosophy of [...] as open to many possible objections. He finds Scruton's writing to be jargon-ridden, believing that its Hegelian language and talk of otherness bestows "a spurious profundity on a normative [...] politics which is at heart timid, conservative, and deeply ignorant." He also believes that, notwithstanding Scruton's attack on psychoanalysis, his defense of [...] difference is to some degree indebted to psychoanalytic theory.

Philosopher A. J. Ayer dismissed [...] Desire as "silly", leading Scruton to reply that he honestly believes his work cogent.

Mark Dooley praises [...] Desire as "magisterial", and writes that Scruton's objective is to show that [...] desire trades in "the currency of the sacred."

See also

• Liberalism and the Limits of Justice
• The Oxford Companion to Philosophy

Footnotes

Bibliography

Books