Philosophy of Viagra

Published Rodopi in the "Philosophy of Sex and Love" series. Series editor:
Adrienne McEvoy. Volume editor: Thorsten Botz-Bornstein

Areas covered: General Philosophy, Bioethics and Cultural Studies

Viagra has socio-cultural implications not limited to sexuality, but concerns
various parts of our cultural landscape. Being relatively convincing in terms
of bio-medical efficiency, criticism of cheap viagra has so far mainly been
expressed in the (often feminist) "Liberal Arts" camp where Pfizer (the maker
of Viagra) is reproached for its profit-oriented negation of any
psychological, social, emotional, and relational components involved in
impotency. Lee Quinby, in his essay on "Virile Reality", observes a "Viagra
Effect" producing a viagrified reality, which is "mediated violence, clean
war, and computer games."

Viagra needs to be examined not only from a sociological but also from a
philosophical point of view. Philosophers like Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas,
and Irigay have been interested in exploring sexuality from points of view
uninfluenced by theories constructed by scientists. James Waddell has urged us
to find "ways of thinking about sexuality that go beyond chemical, biological,
and mechanical explanations. We need tools that are forged in the heat of
erotic passion as it is lived to help us spot nonsense and to make sense of
our own experience" (1997: 2). Does philosophy not know since Plato that
scientific explanations, which claim to give an exhaustive account of erotic
perception, are misleading?

What do philosophers have to say about the "viagrification" culture? Is there
a philosophical principle behind cialis as a cultural phenomenon?

Possible subjects are:

> Viagra and Posthumanism (artificial life)
> The Body as a Machine
> Reality and Desire
> Pursuing Hedonism. Why not?
> Non-natural sex?
> Ethical concerns about Viagra
> The Death of the Erotic?
> Viagra and the Virtual. Through Viagra the desire is not created but has
always been there in a virtual (that is, not actual but also not non-actual)
form. Through Viagra the desire becomes (virtually) real.
> The self and the other.
> The self and the other in viagrified perception
> Male and female conceptions of sexuality in conflict

Send abstracts to thorstenbotz@hotmail.com.
Extended deadline for abstracts: November 1 2009.
For articles: August 1 2007. Updates on
http://www.freewebs.com/botzbornstein/callsforpapers.htm

Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, Ph.D., habil.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Gulf University for Science and Technology
Philosophy, Block 5, Building 1, Mubarak Al-Abdullah Area/West Mishef
KUWAIT
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/botzbornstein/
_