Author: Simon Blackburn
File Type: pdf
From Publishers WeeklyA distinguished thinker offers an unabashed defense of everyones favorite sin, part of Oxfords series on the seven deadlies. Blackburn (The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy Being Good) defines lust as acute sexual desire, untrammeled by any other elements that might make it, well, sinfullike aggression, selfishness or (though he doesnt mention it) self-destructiveness. This premise, along with the unquestioned secularism of modern philosophy, leave him free to consider a broad historical range of ideas about lust-from Plato and the Stoics through Augustine and the Christian Panic to Sartre and Martha Nussbaum-with care and discernment, but with no real vulnerability to their arguments. Because lust is broadly condoned in our culture, most readers will find that Blackburns condescension comes across quite sympathetically. He is a witty writer and a canny reader, particularly adept at pitting temporally disparate thinkers (e.g., Hume and Stephen Pinker) against each other. A juicy group of illustrations, all works of fine art (including the torso of Mick Jagger), add to the books allure. But Blackburn is so confident of being on the side of the angels that he creates devils that arent really there, like the feminist concept of objectification, which he conflates with lust itself. And since he insists that lust is a holiday from moral constraints, it turns out not subject to judgment. So everything is all right, he concludes cheerily it is only the inhibition of lust by bad philosophy or ideology, by falsity, by controls, by corruptions and perversions and suspicions that we need fear. This book is not so much a defense of sexual desire as a comprehensive excuse for it, like a note from the doctor. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From BooklistIn his delightfully literate, cogent, and congenial contribution to the Seven Deadly Sins lecture and book series, philosopher Blackburn argues that, far from being a sin, lust is not merely useful but essential. Blackburn first defines lust and what may be wrong with it, and then weighs major attitudes toward lust throughout Western history. Lust is the keen desire for sex and its pleasures for their own sake, he says, and problems arising from it are matters of excesses not intrinsic to it, such as violence, compulsion, and indiscretion (the ancient philosophical Cynics reputedly had sex in public). Plato, the Stoics, Augustine, and Aquinas all had varyingly severe reservations about lust that Blackburn defuses before turning relievedly to Hobbes (yes, the war of all against all fellow) with his contention that lust, affording sensual pleasure and delight of the mind, leads to the most complete personal communion possible. Kant, Freud, and Sartre backslid from Hobbes, but now, everything is all right, and we can reclaim lust for humanity. Mmmmm. Cigarette? Ray Olson American Library Association. lt