Bryant Morrill
Nov 3 · 1 min read

This takes stoicism too far and tries to make a moral judgement on arbitrary matters. Please stop trying to make a religion out of this philosophy.

The only things we should be asking ourselves when it comes to things like pornography is this:

“Does it hurt my fellow human beings?”

and

“Will I react well if it is taken away”

Saying anything more is a hi-jack of the philosophy to promote your own views. Premising your argument on the theoretical “sage” is also deceptive, because the sage has not and will not ever exist. The best we can ever achieve is an approximation. A practical stoic would use porn as tool, without excess, and only when the sexual urge is distracting him/ her from more important things. To condemn porn as ultimately unstoic is basically condemning sex with contraceptives, as they satisfy the same urges. I don’t buy your attempt at making a distinction, as sex is often impersonal and the benefits of sex also exist for masturbation, etc.

Again, this assumes the porn is ethically made and there is not an addiction, but those issues are present in any form of pleasure or media.

    Bryant Morrill

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