The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome

by Martha C. Nussbaum (Editor), Juha Sihvola (Editor)

Sex is beyond reason, and yet we constantly reason about it. So, too, did the peoples of ancient Greece and Rome. But until recently there has been little discussion of their views on erotic experience and sexual ethics.The Sleep of Reason brings together an international group of philosophers, philologists, literary critics, and historians to consider two questions normally kept how is erotic experience understood in classical texts of various kinds, and what ethical judgments and philosophical arguments are made about sex? From same-sex desire to conjugal love, and from Plato and Aristotle to the Roman Stoic Musonius Rufus, the contributors demonstrate the complexity and diversity of classical sexuality. They also show that the ethics of eros, in both Greece and Rome, shared a number of a focus not only on self-mastery, but also on reciprocity; a concern among men not just for penetration and display of their power, but also for being gentle and kind, and for being loved for themselves; and that women and even younger men felt not only gratitude and acceptance, but also joy and sexual Eva Cantarella* Kenneth Dover* Chris Faraone* Simon Goldhill* Stephen Halliwell* David M. Halperin* J. Samuel Houser* Maarit Kaimio* David Konstan* David Leitao* Martha C. Nussbaum* A. W. Price* Juha Sihvola

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Sexuality, Classics

457 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, appointed in the Law School and the Philosophy Department. Among her many awards are the 2018 Berggruen Prize, the 2017 Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy.

Reviews

[James Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some fabulous essays in this volume. I particularly enjoyed Nussbaum on Mussonius. Stoicism and feminism seems a good route to follow up.