End-less and Self-Referential Desire

Autor: Angela Franks
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. 18:629-646
ISSN: 1532-5490
DOI: 10.5840/ncbq201818467
Popis: Is postlapsarian sexual desire primarily altruistic or disordered? This paper utilizes the resources in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and in the contemporary magisterium to argue that recent phenomena such as the #MeToo movement underscore the inherently unstable and aggressive nature of sexual desire when it is uprooted from its natural end (i.e., is end-less). Aquinas highlights three aspects of desire that more sex-positive accounts of sexuality would do well to heed: its natural infinity, its self-referential nature (grounded in amor concupiscentiae), and its power of rationalization. By directing the motor of desire toward its natural ends, virtue—led by reason—can redirect desire away from self and toward the good.
Databáze: OpenAIRE