Department Colloquium: Veronique Munoz-Darde, London (Berkeley, autumn)

Veronique Munoz-Darde, Professor of Philosophy (University College London) and Mills Adjunct Professor of Philosophy (Berkeley, autumn). 

'The Priest, the Liberal and the Harlot: Liberalism and Sexual Desire'

Abstract:

In this talk I consider a dilemma raised for liberalism by the case of sex work. On the one hand, there is a problem for a common conception of a neutralist liberal response. A view which refuses to offer any objection to sex work, apart from contingent considerations relating to coercion and exploitation fails to acknowledge the special status of sex and the widespread reactions which most of us share, whether liberals or not, to sex work as something inherently shameful. On the other hand, there is equally a problem for the new wave of liberalism which seeks to reconcile fundamental liberal principles with a predominantly feminist critique of neutralism. This tradition typically focuses on commodification and objectification as reflecting the politically urgent wrongs associated with indifference towards markets in sexual favours. For this strategy is liable to encourage imposing a rather coercive state structure on some of the weakest members of society. And, to the extent that such a view avoids positing an essential wrong in commodification or objectification, in appealing to various of the social consequences of permitting prostitution, it too loses sight of what is special about sex and the sex trade. Liberals who treasure moral neutrality fail to face up to the reality of our social reactions; liberals who take such responses seriously seem to recommend attitudes and potentially policies every bit as coercive as traditional conservative responses. I’ll suggest that we can avoid this dilemma by taking seriously the social inevitability of the shaming attitudes we all share, without looking to some moral basis which justifies such an attitude of shame. The key morals here are on the one hand a need to rethink liberal neutrality and on the other, to recognize that the claims of liberalism should lie closer to the details of social reality.

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL