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Having Fun with the Periodic Table: A Counterexample to Rea’s Definition of Pornography

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Abstract

In a paper from 2001, Michael C. Rea considers the question of what pornography is. First, he examines a number of existing definitions of ‘pornography’ and after having rejected them all, he goes on to present his own preferred definition. In this short paper, I suggest a counterexample to Rea’s definition. In particular, I suggest that there is something that, on the one hand, is pornography according to Rea’s definition, but, on the other hand, is not something that we would intuitively describe as being an instance of pornography.

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Notes

  1. “What Is Pornography?” Noûs 35:1.

  2. It should be noted that the argument presented here, as it pertains to (b), rests on a distinction between:(U) being a user of pornography in virtue of using x and (U*) using x as pornography (where ‘to be using something as pornography’ is understood in Rea’s sense).With this distinction in place, it is clear that the people who use the charts of the periodical table for educational purposes only are not using the charts as pornography. They do not do this because they do not desire to be sexually aroused by the communicative content of the charts. Does this mean that (b) cannot be used to discredit Rea’s definition? I do not think so. (b) is counterintuitive in itself, and the definition that leads to it is therefore revisionary.

  3. In private correspondence, Michael C. Rea has suggested this reply to me.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Michael C. Rea, Jennifer M. Saul and an anonymous referee of Philosophia – Philosophical Quarterly of Israel for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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  1. Institute of Philosophical Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

    Jorn Sonderholm

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  1. Jorn Sonderholm
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Correspondence to Jorn Sonderholm.

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Sonderholm, J. Having Fun with the Periodic Table: A Counterexample to Rea’s Definition of Pornography. Philosophia 36, 233–236 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-007-9103-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-007-9103-7

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