Down-to-Earth Philosophy

The biblical story of Onan in Genesis 38.6–11 is one that has traditionally been used by Christians, especially Catholics, to show that God detests contraceptive sex and masturbation, or at least male masturbation (since the loss of sperm leads to loss of life, i.e. loss of a substance with the potential to produce offspring). Not just masturbation accompanied by sexual fantasy, visual aids, etc., but any self-stimulation of one's genitalia without reproduction as its end goal. But I'm partial to another interpretation of the biblical text, one that Catholic Answers says  has become the orthodoxy in contemporary biblical exegesis. According to this standard interpretation, Onan's sin was failing to perform his duty to impregnate his widowed sister-in-law—nothing more, nothing less. This Israelite practice that Onan failed to follow was known as levirate marriage . Had Onan's brother not died, Onan could have engaged in as much masturbation and contraceptive sex as he pl

Sir Roger Scruton is a well-known conservative philosopher. He is frequently cited by philosophically inclined anti-porn activists. So naturally, I've started reading Scruton's work on beauty, sexual desire, and pornography. Scruton is an excellent writer, and I've found that he and I actually have a decent amount of common ground. But I'm unpersuaded by the case against sex work that I have seen in his writings. Even if we recognize and respect the kind of beauty Scruton emphasizes, we need not abolish sex work. I explain why that's the case in this post, where I reflect on some passages from Scruton's book  Beauty  that caught my attention. Beauty: The Centerf–... err, –piece of Scruton's Anti-Porn Ethic On p. 47, Scruton writes: There is a distinction, familiar to all of us, between an interest in a person's body and an interest in a person a s embodied . A body is an assemblage of body parts; an embodied person is a free being revealed in the fle