Is casual sex unethical?
Why sex is ethical without love or outside a relationship
This article was inspired by the article Musonius Rufus — Lecture XII: On sexual indulgence, by scientist-turned-philosopher Massimo Pigliucci, who writes in Medium as Philosophy as a Way of Life. I know Massimo for his articles in Skeptic and the Skeptical Inquirer, before he joined Medium. He is one of my favorite writers here.
In this article, he criticizes the sex-negativity and homophobia of Roman Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus, comparing it with the more sexually liberal attitude of the Greek Stoics.
However, Massimo condemns casual sex:
“Perhaps causal sex would [run afoul of Stoic morality], on the ground that it tends to treat others as mere means to the end of one’s pleasure. Even when consensual, this may still be argued to be unvirtuous because exploitative.”
“But a lot of other attitudes toward sex would not seem to violate Stoic first principles, including sex for pleasure within a committed relationship (whether marriage or otherwise). That’s because pleasure is, after all, a preferred indifferent, and sexual pleasure is a way to strengthen social bonds with those we are physically intimate with. It is immaterial whether the relationship is one of marriage or partnership, or indeed one of…
