PDF Download Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner
This letter could not affect you to be smarter, however the book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner that we offer will evoke you to be smarter. Yeah, at least you'll know more than others who do not. This is what called as the quality life improvisation. Why needs to this Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner It's because this is your preferred theme to review. If you such as this Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner motif about, why don't you read the book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner to enhance your conversation?
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner
PDF Download Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner
Some individuals could be laughing when taking a look at you checking out Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner in your spare time. Some may be admired of you. And some might desire resemble you which have reading leisure activity. Exactly what regarding your very own feeling? Have you felt right? Reviewing Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner is a need and a pastime simultaneously. This problem is the on that will make you really feel that you must check out. If you understand are looking for the book qualified Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner as the choice of reading, you could discover below.
How can? Do you think that you do not need enough time to opt for shopping e-book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner Never mind! Just rest on your seat. Open your kitchen appliance or computer as well as be online. You can open up or go to the link download that we gave to obtain this Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner By this way, you can obtain the on the internet publication Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner Checking out the e-book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner by online can be actually done effortlessly by conserving it in your computer as well as gadget. So, you can proceed whenever you have spare time.
Reviewing the e-book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner by online could be also done quickly every where you are. It appears that hesitating the bus on the shelter, waiting the list for line up, or other areas feasible. This Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner can accompany you during that time. It will not make you really feel weary. Besides, by doing this will certainly likewise improve your life top quality.
So, merely be here, find guide Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner now and read that quickly. Be the first to review this book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner by downloading in the web link. We have other publications to read in this web site. So, you could discover them also effortlessly. Well, now we have done to offer you the finest book to check out today, this Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner is truly ideal for you. Never ignore that you require this book Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner to make far better life. Online publication Sex And Reason, By Richard A. Posner will truly give easy of everything to read and take the advantages.
Sexual drives are rooted in biology, but we don't act on them blindly. Indeed, as the eminently readable judge and legal scholar Richard Posner shows, we make quite rational choices about sex, based on the costs and benefits perceived.
Drawing on the fields of biology, law, history, religion, and economics, this sweeping study examines societies from ancient Greece to today's Sweden and issues from masturbation, incest taboos, date rape, and gay marriage to Baby M. The first comprehensive approach to sexuality and its social controls, Posner's rational choice theory surprises, explains, predicts, and totally absorbs.
- Sales Rank: #1294849 in Books
- Published on: 1994-01-01
- Released on: 1994-01-31
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.17" w x 6.50" l, 1.47 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 468 pages
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Very good
By HH
This is not a book about the phenomenology of sex, nor is it about the conditions under which sex (or reproduction) are desirable or good. The experiences of sex are not really the object of this book either. "Sex and Reason" is about reason (in the economic sense) and sex, about what we know about sex and some general limits on rationally organizing the social controls on sex and reproduction. On that level, it is very good and ought to be widely read, not merely within academia, but among Posner's colleagues on the bench, the public, and perhaps most of all legislators.
As for what "Sex and Reason" has to offer, the summary of empirical knowledge regarding sexuality is impressive and extremely useful, as many of the debates over controls on sexuality are permeated by positions and claims which are without foundation in fact. Additionally, Posner has brought together most of the topics naturally linked in a consideration of sex more generally. (Hence "Sex and Reason" would serve as a good textbook for philosophically-oriented courses on sexuality.) Not only are there discussions of abortion and the sale of reproductive services, but also discussions of exchanges of sexual services, social attitudes towards gays and lesbians, as well as of various reproductive and sexual arrangements. In all the discussions, the first and primary order of business is a review of the state of empirical knowledge, although there are curiosities -- e.g., why this work, devoted to elucidation of the state of scientific knowledge about sex, should cite with approval, of all people, Freud.
Where Posner ventures into normative analysis he has very interesting things to say. For example, the discussion of the sale of reproductive services ("surrogate motherhood") is acute; Posner nicely highlights the shortcomings in the positions of the most interesting thinkers writing on that subject. Nevertheless, Posner's own views are curiously truncated in places. His arguments never explain why contracts for reproductive services should be subject to specific performance. Why is the proper remedy for breach of contract an order enforcing it rather, as is the normal case in the U.S. for contract breaches, monetary compensation? It's an odd position for Posner particularly, who has been is so closely associated with efficiency breach doctrine in contracts -- the idea being, very roughly, that contracts need not be enforced when it is economically inefficient to do so.
There are a number of places in "Sex and Reason" where Posner's arguments are inconsistent or incomplete in some significant respect. For example, early on Posner discusses rape as including sex obtained through deception (p. 81). Later in the book, in the chapter "Coercive Sex", he defines rape as coercive sex. Identifying rape with coercive sex is inconsistent with including either sex obtained by deception (e.g., regarding identity, health status, or nature of acts) or sex with incapacitated persons (e.g., the intoxicated or unconscious). On a more theoretical level, one may be hesitant to accept some of Posner's normative commitments. It is important to keep in mind that Posner is offering offers an economic analysis of sexuality; by "economic analysis" he means one in which conduct is rational if not irrational as determined relative to social ends (p. 213). Hence "Sex and Reason" is largely concerned with PATTERNS of conduct, not instances. Posner does not go much beyond examining the rationality of various social arrangements with respect to control of sexuality and reproduction. If one keeps Posner's broad focus in mind, then within the constraints outlined in the book, sense can be made of the notion that sexuality, within certain limits, is subject to social construction.
Posner does not entirely eschew moral commentary. His own views are a version of Mill's "harm principle" liberalism. And Posner does not hesitate to point to the sillier aspects of current U.S. legal restrictions on sex. But there is an underlying tension in this and several other of Posner's works with respect to his overall normative position. On the one hand, Posner has a rather skeptical view of morality. It is founded for him in intuitions that are, perhaps, immutable, or at least not subject to rational argument (e.g., permissible infanticide; see pp. 230-31). Maybe this is a kind of Wittgensteinian view of morality. On the other hand, assuming the sort of immovable intuitions about basic moral issues, it is unclear just what the point of economic analysis is or could be. At most it could model outcomes without explaining them. But irrationality, in this sense, would not be a reason for reform. My own suspicion is that there is an unresolved set of problems with moral epistemology here.
49 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
A Mind-opening Book
By Nottingham
Reading Judge Posner's book is a humbling experience. Much of what I thought I knew about sex is a tiny fraction of what this book has documented, analyzed and argued.
I have known that many early Greek luminaries, such as Plato, Socrates and Sophocles were homosexual. This book puts these mere points of interest in a wholly different light by exploring the social settings of the early Grecian (Athenian) society: that the early marriages were not companionate, that women in that society, including wives, were sequestered, that boys and girls were raised separately, and not by the mother, that pederasty was almost an accepted social institution, etc.
I have always believed that homosexuality is a rooted genetically, although it is not binary factor. This book puts homosexuality, through the use of the "Kinsey scale", into different degrees and clearly distinguishes between homosexual tendency and homosexual activity, and defines the opportunistic homosexual in economic terms. With very simple reasoning, this book explains why urbanization seems (only seems) to foster homosexuality and the emergence of homosexual enclaves such as San Francisco and New York.
This book also explains, again through an economic model, why the black men in this country seem (again, only seem!) to be sexually aggressive and promiscuous, whereas sexual abuse of off-spring children (girls) have a higher incidence in white households.
I am also enlightened on how the child birth, which in the early days often caused the death of the mother, created serial polygamy (polygyny, to be more precise) and that the widower, who were older and more economically established men, puts young bachelors at a competitive disadvantage in securing a mate, especially in the early industrial society where the cost of marriage was high.
I am enlightened to the role of the Church as the promoter of companionate marriage and how its fairly profound effect on this social institution. And also why the Church "overtly condoned prostitution and covertly condoned monastic homosexuality."
There are many other issues, such as infanticide, fornication, adultery, divorce, coercive and abusive sex, pornography, adoption, surrogate child-bearing ... to which Judge Posner gave interesting and informative treatment.
The thoroughness with which Judge Posner analyzes a problem is unmatched. Although I am not always completely convinced by his reasoning (because some of the arguments are necessarily qualitative and intuitive,) but the plausibility is striking. And I am frequently amazed by the different angles with which he looks at an issue, and the amount of facts and data he brings forth to support his views. When facts contradict what his theory predicts, he graciously points that out. In the conclusion of the book, Judge Posner, with scholarly grace and modesty, points out that his work was exploratory, a learning process for himself, and was not being presented as definitive.
Judge Posner's writing style is very good. The book is never boring, though some of the information and arguments are repeated due to the inter-relatedness of many of the issues. Throughout the book, the Judge's remarkable analytic skill can be felt. At one point, the Judge mercilessly took apart the New Jersey Supreme Court's opinion of the Baby M case (Stern vs. Whitehead) and clearly showed how judges, lacking knowledge on the subject matter and often ignorant about economics, proceeded to vote their own prejudices, and substituted rhetoric and sloppy logic for judicial analysis. This one episode, which clearly illustrates the reason he wrote this book, as he stated in the introduction, is worth the price of the book.
How many judges are as good as Judge Posner? Since he has published so much, chances of his ever being nominated and confirmed to be a justice of the High Court must be pretty slim, considering the infamous borking effect. This is just as well. I wishfully think his publications probably has a greater influence on the society, especially the legal community, than if he were appointed a justice.
Having read several of Judge Posner's books, I mark him down as one of a handful of top-notch intellectuals in my estimation.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
A Major Breakthrough
By Andrew Kennedy
In this book Richard Posner manages to singlehandedly turn legal scholarship on its head. He examines human sexuality from a myriad of perspectives--literature, sociology, evolutionary biology, morality, and history. He does so with impeccable scholarship, demonstrating not only that he is widely read in these diverse areas, but that he has something to say. The book is worth reading for just that.
But Posner's more impressive accomplishment is his singular approach to the regulation of human sexual behavior. His rational choice, economics of law approach is compelling. Even if you are not entirely convinced, Posner builds a powerful case for both academic and policy debate.
Posner's approach contrasts with most legal scholarship, which is lifeless and rarely bothers to consider the social sciences. Posner's book shows the intergal link between law, politics, and economics. It is also approachable and direct. You can't read Sex and Reason and not feel your deeply held beliefs directly challenged by a kind and discerning intellect. He is passionate, articulate, and eminently readable.
Posner's book has become a lightening rod in legal circles and is a must read for any serious reader in the area.
See all 13 customer reviews...
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner PDF
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner EPub
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner Doc
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner iBooks
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner rtf
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner Mobipocket
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner Kindle
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner PDF
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner PDF
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner PDF
Sex and Reason, by Richard A. Posner PDF
