Sexuality and Civilisation

By Richard Hazzlewood

This work addresses the question of sexuality from a complete civilisational context, looking primarily in a cultural and philosophical way. It includes discussion of Freud and Shakespeare among others, and some insight into the cultural history of sexuality. It concludes that Natural Law is a good framework for considering this topic, as well as a heightened sense of the full potential of man in his creative and intellectual potential, which surely requires a due regard for sexuality as something of a second order concern.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Hazzlewood
• Release date: Apr 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463616161

Richard Hazzlewood

Quiet academic type from North West England. BA English, MA Renaissance Literature.I studied in exile by the rivers of Babylon for 3 years, aka Cambridge. And I descended into Egypt, aka PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now I live in a spiritual hermitage where I study literature, philosophy and religion.I am a Roman Catholic convert, and particularly find spiritual fulfilment in the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Liturgy of the Hours.Beer, wine, and spirits are my three branches of government. I am currently especially interested in French and Italian red.Philosophy is really the driving force of my life, and I always seek to question and open up new vistas on being. From Classical ethics to Medieval metaphysics to existentialism, I like to run the gamut of philosophical thought.Poetry is an abiding passion of mine.Finally, a list of books I hold very close to my heart: Augustine, 'Confessions'; Bonaventure, 'Journey of the Mind to God'; Dante, 'The Divine Comedy'; Plato, 'Phaedrus'; Cervantes, 'Don Quixote'; 'The Bhagavad Gita', & of course, 'The Bible'.

Book preview

Introduction

Sexuality is important to any social study of the history of civilisation, and our current times. It has gone from being recognised by acts and relationships to being intensely psychologised and abstracted. But however we denote sexuality, it is important to bear in mind that it can be both a creative and destructive force. It can be sublime like Tristan and Iseult, or base like many a contemporary film.

In the history of man there have been many attempts to set a moral framework for sexuality. In today’s society, we are beyond the historical norm. We still have many important proscriptions remaining: for example, incest, prostitution, sexual trafficking, paedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia and other assorted sexual taboos. Sexuality has the potential for harm so these rules are clearly there for a reason. If we have any conception of man as a noble or even worthwhile being, we have to set a minimum standard to his behaviour. That behaviour necessarily must reflect a notion of the good, the true and the beautiful. The good, as to what is conducive to his best developmental and teleological interest; the true, as to what accords with the highest expressions of our civilisation, and the beautiful, as to what is right and proper not merely in aesthetics, but in the very decorum of thought and conduct.

As the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre has