Erotic Morality: The Role of Touch in Moral Agency

by Linda Holler

Erotic Morality examines the role of the senses and the emotions, especially touch, in moral reflection and agency. Moving from organic disorders such as autism to culturally induced feeling disorders found in dualistic philosophy, pornography, and some forms of sadomasochism, Linda Holler argues that reclaiming the sentient awareness necessary to our physical and moral well-being demands healing the places where we have become numb or hypersensitive to touch. By considering ascetic practices designed to produce what Buddhists call mindfulness, Holler presents alternatives to destructive patterns of actions dictated by desensitivity and habitual conditioning.

Genres: Philosophy

242 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Helen Gore-Laird · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent book that explores the need and uses of human touch. The author discourse allow us to understand that "touch is used as the primary sense around which to compose a discourse about moral agency. Touch is the first sense given to us in evolutionary and individual biological history, and in its physiological and psychological dimensions touch may be our most foundational erotic sense. Erotic in poet Audre Lorde's use of the term, touch unites sensory and emotional feeling. The ways that we are physically touched help to determine our repulsions, attractions, and indifferences and our ability to respondemotionally to what goes on around us, that is, to care passionately and compassionately about our own lives and the lives of others." The book allows us to see how important the sense of touch is to our understanding of self-awareness, world awareness, and emotional feelings and how these are intertwined. Linda Holliyer starts her discourse on touch with the Autism and the stories of Temple Grandin and Donna Williams.