Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality

Edited with Brian D. Earp and Lori Watson, and published by Routledge in 2022. You can buy the book here and read it in Routledge Handbooks online here.

This Handbook covers the most urgent, controversial, and important topics in the philosophy of sex. It is both philosophically rigorous and yet accessible to specialists and non-specialists, covering ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language, and featuring interactions with neighboring disciplines such as psychology, bioethics, sociology, and anthropology.

The volume’s 40 chapters are written by an international team of both respected senior researchers and essential emerging scholars. The broad scope of coverage, depth in insight and research, and accessibility in language make The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality a comprehensive introduction for newcomers to the subject as well as an invaluable reference work for advanced students and researchers in the field.　

Table of Contents

Introduction

Clare Chambers, Brian D. Earp, Lori Watson

Part I: What is Sex? Is Sex Good?

1. What is a Sexual Act?
   Kristina Gupta
2. Eroticisms in Cross-Cultural Perspective
   Sara Johnsdotter
3. The Value of Sex
   Sam Shpall
4. Is There a Right to Sex?
   John Danaher
5. The Concept and Significance of Virginity
   Neil McArthur

Part II: Sexual Orientations

6. What is a Sexual Orientation?
   Lisa M. Diamond
7. Sexual Orientation, Sexual Desires, and Choice
   E. Diáz-León
8. Queer and Straight
   Matthew Andler
9. Asexuality
   A.W. Eaton and Bailey Szustak
10. Feminist Heterosexuality
    Christie Hartley
11. Heterosexual Male Sexuality: A Positive Vision
    Shaun Miller
12. Radical Feminist Analysis of Heterosexuality
    Jessica Joy Cameron
13. Lesbian Feminism
    Finn Mackay

Part III: Sexual Autonomy and Consent

14. Flirting
    Lucy McDonald
15. Sex and Consent
    Karamvir Chadha
16. Beyond Consent
    Susan J. Brison
17. Sexual Autonomy, Consent, and Reproductive Control
    Mianna Lotz
18. Sexual Practices and Relationships Among Young People
    Kate Ott and Lauren D. Sawyer
19. Sex and Disability
    Tom Shakespeare
20. Sexual Consent, Aging, and Dementia
    Andria Bianchi

Part IV: Regulating Sexual Relationships

21. Monogamy: Government Policy
    Stephen Macedo and Peter de Marneffe
22. Plural Marriage and Equality
    Lori Watson
23. Sex, Marriage, and Race
    Robin Zheng
24. The Ethics of Relationship Anarchy
    Ole Martin Moen and Alexander Sørlie

Part V: Pathologizing Sex and Sexuality

25. The Eugenic Logic of Sexual Normality
    Tara M. Dankel
26. “Disordering” Sex Through Medicine
    Katarzyna Grunt-Mejer
27. Religion and Sexual Shame
    Krista K. Thomason
28. Homophobia and Conversion ‘Therapies’
    Sean Aas and Candice Delmas

Part VI: Contested Desires

29. The Ethics and Politics of Sexual Preference
    Gulzaar Barn
30. BDSM
    Manon Garcia
31. Critiquing Consensual Adult Incest
    Natasha McKeever
32. Pedophilia
    Agustín Malón

Part VII: Objectification and Commercialized Sex

33. Sexual Objectification
    Patricia Mariño
34. The Civil-Rights Approach to Pornography
    John Stoltenberg
35. Pornography and the “Sex Wars”
    Mari Mikkola
36. The Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work
    Jessica Flanigan
37. An Equality Approach to Prostitution
    Lori Watson

Part VIII: Technology and the Future of Sex

38. The Ethics of Matching: Hookup Apps and Online Dating
    Michal Klincewicz, Lily E. Frank, and Emma A. Jane
39. The Ethics of Humanoid Sex Robots
    Sven Nyholm
40. Sex and Emergent Technologies
    Robbie Arrell

About the editors

Brian D. Earp is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and bioethicist with interests in gender, sex, sexuality, and related topics. Brian is Associate Director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University and The Hastings Center, and Senior Research Fellow in Moral Psychology at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. With Julian Savulescu, Brian is co-author of Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships (Stanford UP, 2020).

Clare Chambers is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body (Allen Lane, 2022), Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford University Press, 2017), and Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State University Press, 2008).

Lori Watson is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in Saint Louis. She is the co-author, with Patrick Hurley, of A Concise Introduction to Logic, 13th ed. (Cengage, 2016); with Christie Hartley, of Equal Citizenship and Public Reason: A Feminist Political Liberalism (Oxford UP, 2018); with Andrew Altman, of Debating Pornography (Oxford University Press, 2019); and, with Jessica Flanigan, of Debating Sex Work (Oxford University Press, 2019).