Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification

Description

Rae Langton here draws together her ground-breaking work on pornography and objectification. She argues that pornography is a speech act that subordinates and silences women, and that, given certain liberal principles, women have rights against it. She explores the traditional Kantian idea that there is something wrong with treating a person as a thing, and highlights an additional epistemological dimension to objectification: it is through a kind ofself-fulfilling projection of beliefs about women as subordinate that women are treated as things. These controversial essays include three new pieces written especially for the volume. They will make stimulating reading for anyone interested in feminism's dialogue with moral and political philosophy. Contents Acknowledgements Note on the Essays Introduction Solipsism Pornography Objectification Afterthoughts and Aspirations 1. Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts 1. ‘Pornography Subordinates’ 2. ‘Pornography Silences’ 3. Concluding Remarks 2. Dangerous Confusion? Response to Ronald Dworkin 3. Freedom of Illocution? Response to Daniel Jacobson 1. Illocution 2. The Allegation of Confusion 3. Freedom of Illocution 4. Pornography’s Authority? Response to Leslie Green 1. The Constructive Power of Authoritative Speech 2. Authority and its Jurisdiction 3. A Surprise Ending 5. Pornography’s Divine Command? Response to Judith Butler 1. Does Pornography Subordinate Women? 2. Does Pornography Silence Women? 6. Whose Right? Ronald Dworkin, Women, and Pornographers 1. Theoretical Framework 2. Dworkin on Civil Rights 3. Dworkin on Pornography 4. Pornography and Civil Rights: A Feminist Response 5. A New Start 6. Concluding Remarks 7. Equality and Moralism: Response to Ronald Dworkin 8. Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game 1. Introduction 2. Saying, and What Pornography Says 3. Saying, Subordinating, and Silencing 4. Fictional Saying 5. Concluding Remarks 9. Duty and Desolation 1. Strategy and Friendship 2. Duty and Desolation 3. Shipwreck 4. Strategy For the Kingdom’s Sake 5. Coda 10. Autonomy-Denial in Objectification 1. Treating as an ‘Object’ 2. ‘Treating’ as an Object 3. Autonomy-denial in Pornography 11. Projection and Objectification 1. Autonomy and Projection in Feminist Philosophy 2. How Projection Helps Sexual Objectification 3. How Projection Hides Sexual Objectification 12. Feminism in Epistemology: Exclusion and Objectification 1. Introduction 2. Knowledge and How Women Might Be Left Out 3. Knowledge and How Women Might Be Hurt 13. Speaker’s Freedom and Maker’s Knowledge 1. Introduction 2. Speaker’s Freedom 3. A Knowledge Argument against Pornography? 4. A Knowledge Argument for Pornography? 5. Maker’s Knowledge 6. Maker’s Knowledge and Harm 14. Sexual Solipsism 1. Introduction 2. Escape From Solipsism 3. The Solipsism of Treating People as Things 4. Two Sexual Solipsisms, and Their Possible Connection 5. Concluding Reflections 15. Love and Solipsism 1. Solipsism and Escape 2. The Object of Sexual Love: Two Interpretations 3. Invasive Sexual Love Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Z