I have an idea. We can say things like “satisfy sexual urges” rather than “get a man/woman.” That way our language doesn’t objectify anybody, but we don’t have to ignore the irrational parts of our brains.
Why is sexual desire irrational? If such a major feature of human psychology can be written off as irrational, what remains? Sexual desire is an enormously important human motivation, perhaps even the most important of all. Lust is every bit as important a feature of our minds as kindness, hunger, fear, or love. Indeed, these parts of ourselves are exquisitely and intrinsically intertwined.
I’m voting down because I see this comment, the top-level post, and the ideology behind it, as a futile attempt to pathologize a very healthy kind of human desire.
Because I didn’t put thought into it and decide to have sexual desire. It just happened.
This is wrong. Rationality isn’t about defeating emotion. You can’t think up your values from a philosophy of perfect emptiness. Terminal values is one of the things that depend on where you are in the mind design space. No matter how your values came into being, even as they are, gorged up by the mindless god of evolution, you use them to decide what to make of yourself, what to expand to the future.
Pathologize human behavior? That is exactly what I was trying to avoid.
No, I said it pathologizes human desire. You referred to sexual desire as “irrational” and as “our inner sex fiends”. This strongly implies that you see our sex desire as crazy/irrational. You also seem to imply we would be better off without it “We can’t turn off our inner sex fiends, but.....”
Why is sexual desire irrational? If such a major feature of human psychology can be written off as irrational, what remains? Sexual desire is an enormously important human motivation, perhaps even the most important of all. Lust is every bit as important a feature of our minds as kindness, hunger, fear, or love. Indeed, these parts of ourselves are exquisitely and intrinsically intertwined.
I’m voting down because I see this comment, the top-level post, and the ideology behind it, as a futile attempt to pathologize a very healthy kind of human desire.
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This is wrong. Rationality isn’t about defeating emotion. You can’t think up your values from a philosophy of perfect emptiness. Terminal values is one of the things that depend on where you are in the mind design space. No matter how your values came into being, even as they are, gorged up by the mindless god of evolution, you use them to decide what to make of yourself, what to expand to the future.
I concur with what Vladimir Nesov’s comment.
No, I said it pathologizes human desire. You referred to sexual desire as “irrational” and as “our inner sex fiends”. This strongly implies that you see our sex desire as crazy/irrational. You also seem to imply we would be better off without it “We can’t turn off our inner sex fiends, but.....”