| Popis: |
It is difficult to define sexual behavior. The most adequate definition seems to be one referring to sexual reward more than to particular motor patterns or, still worse, specific goals or functions. Explanations of behavior in terms of its purported function or final cause belong to teleology and are entirely unacceptable with one exception: humans may have a mental representation of the goal or purpose of their behavior, and this representation may act as a cause. In other animals, it is not known if representation of goals exists. The consequence is that teleological explanations can only be applied to human behavior and only when the causative representation can be unequivocally known. Explanations of behavior should always be given in terms of cause–effect. There is no exception to this. Other explanations are quasi-scientific at the best and meaningless in most cases. Within the Christian tradition, sexual behavior must be performed with the explicit goal of reproduction, otherwise it is a venial sin. Saint Augustine wrote brilliant analyses of the inevitable association between the original sin and the sexual act. He also established the connection between sex and love and ended up maintaining that sexual acts should not only have the purpose of reproduction but also be executed by loving partners. Sexual behavior is intrinsically rewarding or “pleasurable.” It is the representation of sex-induced pleasure that moves humans to search for a sexual partner and eventually engage in copulatory behavior. |
