Reason and Sexuality in Western Thought

Acknowledgements

Part I. The Ascetic Idealism of Reason

1. Eros and the Idealism of Platonic Reason

2. Aristotelian Virtue, Love and the Ends of Nature

3. God, Will and Unruly Sex

4. Divine Order of Nature

5. Intolerance of Universal Reason

Part II. Rationality in the Service of Desire

1. Epicureanism and Sexual Realism

2. Renaissance and the Humanisation of Eros

3. Hedonism within the Bounds of Rational Order

4. Progressive Rationality and Sexual Reform

5. Libertinism at the Limit of Rationality

Part III. Passion Beyond Reason

1. Mystical and Courtly Love

2. Romantic Critique of Rationality

3. Romantic Philosophy as Religion of Love

4. Death, Fantasy and Indifferent Nature

5. Freud and the Sexual Unconscious

Part IV. Perspectives on Reason and Sexuality

1. Holism of Human Experience

2. Metaphysical Unity of Body and Self

3. Love and Reason within History

4. Subjective Existence and the Sexual Self

5. Phenomenology of Sexual Experience

6. Sex and Oppression

7. Eros and Civilization

8. Politics and Anti-Politics of Sexuality

Afterthoughts

Notes

Bibliography

Index