Eros and Ethos

A New Theory of Sexual Ethics

Sexual ethics has historically been a bleak landscape of three false alternatives - resist, abstain, or indiscriminately indulge. In Eros and Ethos, philosopher Jason Stotts presents a radical, new alternative in which sex is an ethically important part of a rich human life.

He shows how sex is a significant expression of our character, because sex arises out of the deepest and most fundamental parts of who we are. On his account, virtue lies in proudly bringing desire in line with our flourishing so that we can create rich and meaningful lives.

©2018 Jason Stotts (P)2020 Jason Stotts

Unempathetic, Irrational, and Unscientific

I couldn't detail all my disagreements with this book short of writing a book of my own in rebuttal to it. It's simplistic, overconfident, and wrong. The author is misinformed and self-righteous. They're just as uncharming as conservatives with the same faults. I want to call out one particular claim as madness, but this is just a sample of the book's many errors: the author claims there's no evidence for the existence of platonic friendship.

The only reason I'm giving this two stars rather than obe is because it's kinda interesting to disagree with. I wish this guy had actually talked to a few people in the sex-positive community while researching this book. Sex-positivity doesn't argue "sex is immoral, but it sure does feel good". Sex positivity has held the moral high ground for my entire life as sexual conservatives have gone deeper and deeper into actual sexual immorality with sex offender leader after sex offender leader. The sex-positive community has a more empathetic understanding of sex than Mr. Stotts does, and he could've benefited from reading their works.