| Reviews |
| - ''Simon Blackburn on lust and Joseph Epstein on envy have produced little classics: written, researched and argued exemplarily, they take their topics seriously but discuss them with elegance and humour as well as insight. Francine Prose on gluttony joins them at the top of the list with a kind and thoughtful meditation.'' - A.C. Grayling, Financial Times Magazine
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| Description | | - Just in time for Valentine's Day - a wide ranging, amusing, and provocative defense of lust
- Simon Blackburn's previous books have sold in excess of 150,000 copies
- Further addition to the Seven Deadly Sins series (Gluttony
and
Envy published 2003)
|
Lust, says Simon Blackburn, is furtive, headlong, always sizing up opportunities. It is a trail of clothing in the hallway, the trashy cousin of love. But be that as it may, the aim of this delightful book is to rescue lust "from the denunciations of old men of the deserts, to deliver it from the pallid and envious confessor and the stocks and pillories of the Puritans, to drag it from the
category of sin to that of virtue."
Blackburn, author of such popular philosophy books as Think
and Being Good
, here offers a sharp-edged probe into the heart of lust, blending together insight from some of the world's greatest thinkers on sex, human nature, and our common cultural foibles. Blackburn takes a wide ranging, historical approach, discussing lust as viewed by
Aristophanes and Plato, lust in the light of the Stoic mistrust of emotion, and the Christian fear of the flesh that catapulted lust to the level of deadly sin. He describes how philosophical pessimists like Schopenhauer and Sartre contributed to our thinking about lust and explores the false starts in understanding lust represented by Freud, Kinsey, and modern "evolutionary psychology." But most
important, Blackburn reminds us that lust is also life-affirming, invigorating, fun. He points to the work of David Hume (Blackburn's favorite philosopher) who saw lust not only as a sensual delight but also "a joy of the mind."
Written by one of the most eminent living philosophers, attractively illustrated and colourfully packaged, Lust
is a book that anyone would lust over.
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| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
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| Links to web resources and related information | More in the same subject area:
Western philosophy
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