by Jason Stotts
On Sunday I delivered my first public philosophy lecture on sexuality to the Ohio Objectivist Society (OOS). The title of the talk was “Objectivism and Sexuality: an Inquiry into the Underlying Operations”. All in all, I think the talk went very well. The group had some good questions afterword and we spent some time talking about sexuality.
There is now a speech video of the speech on YouTube.
Anyone wanting a PDF copy of the speech can leave a comment with their e-mail. The speech is copyrighted by me and I ask that if you do ask for one, that you not duplicate it or pass it to others.
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Objectivism and Sexuality
An Inquiry into the Underlying Operations
“Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive
and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life.
Show me the woman he sleeps with
and I will tell you his valuation of himself.”
~Ayn Rand
In order to understand why Ayn Rand thought this, and why she is right about it, we need to first understand how sexual attraction works. For too long sex has been thought to be impervious to reason and completely outside the province of our understanding. Happily, however, this is not the case. In this essay we are going to endeavor to understand the nature of sexuality and its operation. By the time we conclude our analysis, we shall be able to fully understand why Ayn Rand thought that one could discern a man’s entire philosophy from his sexual attractions and activities.