Peikoff - Happiness - Sex As Metaphysical

Question 1

I shall consider sex first as it functions in the life of a rational man.

A rational man needs not merely to know intellectually that he is good and the universe auspicious, but to …

Answer 1

EXPERIENCE IN THE FORM OF A CONSUMMATE EMOTION the full reality of these 2 facts, which are essential in his action and survival.

Question 2

Happiness, in the sense of metaphysical pleasure, is an enduring affective leitmotif, a positive background conditioning one’s daily joys and sorrows.

This kind of pleasure …

Answer 2

Is to vital to remain a mere background.

Sometimes, as an intense state of exultation, it itself becomes the focus of consciousness.

Question 3

Sex, in AR’s identification, is …

Answer 3

A CELEBRATION OF SELF AND OF EXISTENCE.

==> It is a celebration of ONE’S POWER to gain values and of the world in which one gains them.

Question 4

Sex, therefore, is a form of feeling happiness, but from a special perspective.

Sex is the rapture of experiencing emotionally 2 interconnected achievements:

Answer 4

SELF-ESTEEM + BENEVOLENT UNIVERSE CONVICTION.

Question 5

Sexual feeling is a SUM.

It presupposes all of …

Answer 5

A rational man’s moral values and his love for them, including the love for the partner who embodies them.

Question 6

The essential meaning of such a feeling is not social, but …

Answer 6

Metaphysical.

Question 7

The sexual feeling pertains not to any single value or love, but to …

Answer 7

The profound CONCERN involved in ALL VALUE PURSUIT.

==> THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A MAN AND REALITY.

Question 8

Sex is a unique form of answering the supreme question of a volitional being:

Answer 8

Can I live?

==> The man of self-esteem, using cognitive, conceptual terms, concludes in his own mind that the answer is yes.

==> When he makes love, he knows that yes w/o words, as a passion coursing his body.

Question 9

Sex is a physical capacity in the service of a …

Answer 9

SPIRITUAL NEED.

==> It reflects not man’s body alone nor his mind alone, but their INTEGRATION.

==> As in all such cases, the mind is the ruling factor.

Question 10

There is a biological basis of human sexuality and a conterpart in the animal world.

But all animal needs and pleasures are …

Answer 10

Transfigured in the context of the rational animal.

==> This is apparent even in regard to such simple needs as food and shelter.

==> Human beings, precisely to the extent that they have attained human stature, gain COMPARATIVELY LITTLE ENJOYMENT from the mere SENSATION of satisfying these needs.

==> Their pleasure comes mostly from the ACCOMPANYING EMOTIONS.

==> It comes from the constellation of CONCEPTUALLY FORMULATED VALUES THAT DEFINE THE NEEDS OF HUMAN SATISFACTION.

Question 11

The principle is that a pleasure which was once purely biological becomes, in the life of a CONCEPTUAL being, …

Answer 11

LARGELY SPIRITUAL.

==> The principle applies preeminently to sex.

==> No human pleasure as intense as that of sex can be dominant a matter of physical sensation.

==> DOMINANTLY, SEX IS AN EMOTION.

***AND THE CAUSE OF EMOTION IS INTELLECTUAL.

Question 12

The fact that a man’s sex life is shaped by his conclusions and value-judgements is evident in every aspect:

Answer 12

It is evident in the

• setting he prefers,
• the state of dress,
• the caresses,
• positions, and practices,
• and PARTICULARLY THE KIND OF PARTNER.

Question 13

No man desires everyone on earth.

Each has some requirements in this regard, however contradictory or unidentified:

Answer 13

The rational man’s requirements, here as elsewhere, are the opposite of contradictory.

==> He desires only a woman he can admire, a woman who (to his knowledge) shares his moral standards, his self-esteem, his view of life.

==> ONLY WITH SUCH A PARTNER CAN HE EXPERIENCE THE REALITY OF THE VALUES HE IS SEEKING TO CELEBRATE, INCLUDING HIS OWN VALUE.

Question 14

Romantic love is the …

Answer 14

STRONGEST POSITIVE EMOTION POSSIBLE BETWEEN TWO INDIVIDUALS.

==> Its experience, therefore, so far from being an animal reaction, is a SELF-REVELATION:

***The values giving rise to this kind of response must be one’s most INTENSELY HELD AND PERSONAL.

Question 15

When a man and a woman do fall in love, sex is …

Answer 15

A NECESSARY AND PROPER EXPRESSION OF THEIR FEELING FOR EACH OTHER.

==> Sex is to love what action is to thought, possession to evaluation, body to soul.

Question 16

“We live in our minds” Roark observes “and existence is the attempt to bring that life into physical reality, to state it in gesture and form.

Sex is the …

Answer 16

Preeminent form of bringing love into physical reality.

Question 17

The subject of sex is complex and belongs largely to the science of psychology.

LP asked AR once what philosophy specifically has to say on the subject.

She answered:

Answer 17

“It sex that sex is GOOD.”

Question 18

Sex is moral, it is an exalted pleasure, it is a PROFOUND VALUE.

Like happiness, therefore, sex is …

Answer 18

AN END IN ITSELF.

==> NOT NECESSARILY A MEANS TO ANY FURTHER END, SUCH AS PROCREATION.

Question 19

This uplifted view of sex leads to an ethical corollary:

A function so important must be granted the respect it deserves.

To respect sex means …

Answer 19

To approach it OBJECTIVELY.

The guiding principle should be:

==> Select a partner whom you love on the basis of VALUES you can identify and defend, then do whatever you wish together in bed, provided that it is mutually desired AND that your pleasures are reality-oriented.

Question 20

The guiding principle in sex should be:

Answer 20

Esteem sex as an expression of reason and of man’s life in the full, moral sense of the term.

Then keeping this context in mind, pursue the value greedily.

Question 21

Such a viewpoint is the opposite of today’s dominant philosophy on the subject.

Intrinsicism …

Answer 21

Damns sex outright.

==> Love is a relationship between two souls that is not to be sullied by connection to the body.

==> In this view, sex-like wealth, pleasure, and LIFE itself-has nothing to do with reason or the conceptual faculty.

==> It is selfish, “animalistic”, “materialistic”.

Question 22

Such a function can be justified only as a necessary evil, a means to PROCREATION.

The true idealists among men, accordingly, such as priests and nuns, …

Answer 22

Will stay morally pure by practicing CELIBACY.

Question 23

As to the rest of humanity, the guidance it needs is a …

Answer 23

Scroll of PROHIBITIONS:

==> No premarital sex, no divorce, no oral intercourse, no masturbation, no contraception, no abortion.

Question 24

These prohibition are an …

Answer 24

ACT OF WAR AGAINST MANKIND.

==> THEY ARE THE FORMAL DECLARATION THAT JOY IS A CRIME.

Question 25

“Only the man who extols the purity of a love devoid of desire, ...

Answer 25

Is capable of the depravity of a desire devoid of love.”

Question 26

This brings us to the typical subjectivist approach to sex:

Answer 26

The subjectivist, too, severs CONCEPTS from PERCEPTS and holds that sex is a mere sensory reaction, DEVOID OF INTELLECTUAL CAUSE. ==> But he tells men to go ahead and revel in it, to grab whatever animalistic sensations they want WITHOUT REFERENCE TO PRINCIPLES OR STANDARDS. ==> In this theory, love is a myth, and sex is merely a wriggling of meat. ==> So ANYTHING GOES that satisfies anybody’s whim—whenever he feels like it, wherever, however, and with whomever or whatever he decides to pick up.

Question 27

The basic identity of these 2 viewpoints is obvious. I do want to note, however, ...

Answer 27

The GLEE with which both schools, pursuant to their basic interpretation, consign sexual attraction to the domain of chemistry, hormones, and inexplicable “spark”, or something else, something—anything— WHICH IS NOT MAN’S CHOSEN VALUES. ==> ANYTHING WHICH ALLOWS PEOPLE TO GO ON INSISTING THAT “Love is blind.” ==> This glee is a form of triumph. ==> It is the irrationalist’s pleasure at the supposed impotence in a crucial realm of his enemy: MAN’S MIND.

Question 28

People whose souls are formed by such philosophies—along with those who reach the same moral dead end on their own, w/o benefit of explicit ideas—approach sex differently from the rational man:

Answer 28

If one lacks SELF-ESTEEM and regards the universe as MALEVOLENT... ==> He has NO CAUSE FOR METAPHYSICAL CELEBRATION. ==> But his need for self-esteem remains. ==> Such an individual may pretend that compliance with sexual taboos indicates a higher virtue on his part.

Question 29

Far more often in the modern West, however, his kind ...

Answer 29

Practices sex uninhibitedly, but seeks to reverse cause and effect while doing so. ==> These men seek to make sex not the expression of self-esteem, but the MEANS OF GAINING IT (usually through the partner’s approval or submission).

Question 30

One cannot, however, gain self-esteem by such means, so ...

Answer 30

Sex becomes an act of FAKING AND OF ESCAPISM. ==> It becomes not the joy of affirming a benevolent universe, but a MOMENTARY DIMINUTION OF THE ANXIETY CAUSED BY A MALEVOLENT-UNIVERSE PREMISE.

Question 31

In this sorrt of approach, too, sexual desire is a ...

Answer 31

Self-revelation. ==> The man who attempts such a fraud with an uncoerced partner has to feel that she will go along with it, that she is on his spiritual level or even lower.

Question 32

Proper human sex, by contrast, requires ...

Answer 32

Men and women of stature, in regard both to MORAL CHARACTER + METAPHYSICAL OUTLOOK. ==> It is to such individuals that AR is referring when she writes, in summation, that man’s spirit: “Gives meaning to insentient matter by molding it to serve one’s chosen goal.”

Question 33

This kind of course, she continues, leads one ...

Answer 33

To the moment when, in answer to the highest of one’s values, in an admiration not to be expressed by any other form of tribute, ONE’S SPIRIT MAKES ONE’S BODY BECOME THE TRIBUTE Recasting it—as proof, as sanction, as reward—into a SINGLE SENSATION OF SUCH INTENSITY OF JOY that no other sanction of one’s existence is necessary.

Question 34

This is what should come to your mind when you think of “morality”:

Answer 34

This kind of ecstasy and the INTELLECTUAL CREATIVITY at its root AND THE THING AT ITS ROOT: ==> The fact of MAN THE HERO FACING NATURE AS A CONQUEROR. **not chastity and poverty and groveling before ghosts.

Question 35

The individual who gains these Objectivist values does not say: “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Answer 35

He EARNED what he has, and he KNOWS it.

Question 36

Practicality, happiness, the sexual celebration of life—all these are ...

Answer 36

EFFECTS, which presuppose the necessary cause.

Question 37

To attain any of them in UNBREACHED form, one must be guided by a certain philosophy:

Answer 37

In METAPHYSICS ==> One must regard this world as real and as the only reality. ==> Otherwise one will undercut one’s ability to deal with the world and will build into one’s soul a sense of impending defeat. In EPISTEMOLOGY ==> One must regard reason as unqualifiedly valid. ==> Otherwise one will lose confidence in one’s only means of reaching one’s goals. In ETHICS ==> One must hold values as compatible with man’s life as the standard. ==> Otherwise one cannot believe that values are achievable.

Question 38

Every system of philosophy, admittedly or not, leads to some kind of ...

Answer 38

Emotional summation, some culmination feeling about man and life. ==> This feeling may be regarded as a litmus test, which reveals the system’s relation to reality and thus its essence and merit.

Question 39

On the negative side, one thinks here of the catalogue of woes that Augustine offers in the “City of God”, the litany of diseases, disasters, and calamities that fills his mind and his pages when he considers the subject of man’s life on earth. As to our own century, one thinks of his agonized heirs, ...

Answer 39

THE EXISTENTIALISTS ==> of their preoccupation with fear and trembling, Angst, death, nothingness, nausea.

Question 40

The emotional outlook of this whole axis, whether religious or secular, ancient or modern, is captured eloquently in a remark of Schopenhauer (an avowed mystic and altruist):

Answer 40

“Whatever one may say, the happiest moment of the happy man is the moment of his falling asleep, and the unhappiest moment of the unhappy that of his waking... Human life must be some kind of mistake.” There is surely a mistake here. But it is not life.

Question 41

An opposite kind of philosophy exists and leads to the opposite feeling about man and life. The outstanding classical exponent of this philosophy is Aristotle:

Answer 41

LP is thinking specifically of the serenity of his “great-souled man” and of Aristotle’s conviction that EUDAIMONIA IS THE HUMAN ENTELECHY. ==> The natural and proper human end, to which all rational endeavors contribute, Aristotle holds, is a state of rich, ripe, fulfilling earthly happiness.

Question 42

The litmus test indicating AR’s approach in this issue is the ...

Answer 42

Heroes of her novels. The heroes, and the joyous, sunlit world they inhabit.

Question 43

A rational philosophy, like a process of virtue, actually works:

Answer 43

It IS practical. If the thing one wishes to reach is that which is man’s birthright: ==> The gaiety of an innocent, soaring spirit reveling in a benevolent universe.