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Blind Date: Sex and Philosophy
Bringing sex and philosophy together on a blind date, Anne Dufourmantelle's provocative study uses this anthology to uncover and examine philosophy's blind spot.
- GenresPhilosophyPsychology
113 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2003
11 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
About the author
Anne Dufourmantelle
23 books188 followersDocteur en philosophie et diplômée de Brown Univesity, Anne Dufourmantelle a enseigné à l’école d’architecture UP6-la Villette, et donné un séminaire à l’Institut des Hautes Etudes en Psychanalyse à l’Ecole normale supérieure. Anne Dufourmantelle meurt le 21 juillet 2017 en tentant de sauver l'enfant d'une amie de la noyade sur une plage du sud de la France.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 12, 2025
if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
120619: this is fascinating. this will reward future rereads, much as sex rewards repeats, for the author has ranged widely, focused, speculated, all the ways these concepts oppose and unite, all the ways that most physical presence (sex) consumes/is consumed by that most intellectual abstraction (philosophy), how this unspoken, rarely addressed, essential of human being, is possibly more what makes us human than any other quality. yes animals have sex. to reproduce. we are animals too in this way, of course, but sex is also something we philosophize about...
having read this slowly, during other reading, i am not certain i can express the pleasures of this intimate deconstruction, only note that though she does have some historical depth, mostly to the greeks, and evolution of discussion of sex and philosophy that persists throughout european arts, history, arts, literature, arts, politics, arts- she has virtually nothing on eurasian, asian, arts and philosophy of sex. where i understand it is something important... review continues later...
140619: ok now out of hospital if not on regular regime, i continue review. and there is much to review, there is some question as to genre of work, yes nonfiction, yes philosophy, but she involves the entire ‘western’ cultural evolution of both terms ‘sex’ and ‘philosophy’, so there is art theory, anthropology, politics, history, changes in emphasis, in attention or disregard, obsession or suppression, and some familiar names. whilst not promoting ‘great man’ model of history, there are names emblematic or central to each era, some questioning unreflected-on sex lives of great philosophers, ancient and modern, plato, aristotle, descartes, kant etc. then names obviously central such as st augustine and christian rejections of the vile body, material versus spiritual, will inform centuries of thought, thus burying pagan, roman and greek celebrations of intoxicating pleasures of the body, burying such as nietzsche will later insist is part of the great lie/valuing being over becoming, which is fun to reflect on in the letters quoting his passionate correspondence (with that fraulein his sister never likes and vice-versa...). there is some great exploration of spinoza, whom i must read on again if not also try reading by. there is of course de sade, whom i must at least read more about if not by. for even where i feel if not formulate disputes with certain assertions of the author, i am engaged in thought, i am enjoying the debate, i am enjoying this perhaps not in purely philosophical way but as if just throwing out ideas to receptive conversationalist at the cafe... fun, this...
so this is book to be read but not consumed, deconstruction for fun, not profit (prophet?)... something to return to whenever moved, something never resolved, something as fun (or should be?) as sex (should be?)...
more:
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman
Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters—And How to Get It
The New Male Sexuality
and:
Philosophizing About Sex
The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
Sex Without Love
120619: this is fascinating. this will reward future rereads, much as sex rewards repeats, for the author has ranged widely, focused, speculated, all the ways these concepts oppose and unite, all the ways that most physical presence (sex) consumes/is consumed by that most intellectual abstraction (philosophy), how this unspoken, rarely addressed, essential of human being, is possibly more what makes us human than any other quality. yes animals have sex. to reproduce. we are animals too in this way, of course, but sex is also something we philosophize about...
having read this slowly, during other reading, i am not certain i can express the pleasures of this intimate deconstruction, only note that though she does have some historical depth, mostly to the greeks, and evolution of discussion of sex and philosophy that persists throughout european arts, history, arts, literature, arts, politics, arts- she has virtually nothing on eurasian, asian, arts and philosophy of sex. where i understand it is something important... review continues later...
140619: ok now out of hospital if not on regular regime, i continue review. and there is much to review, there is some question as to genre of work, yes nonfiction, yes philosophy, but she involves the entire ‘western’ cultural evolution of both terms ‘sex’ and ‘philosophy’, so there is art theory, anthropology, politics, history, changes in emphasis, in attention or disregard, obsession or suppression, and some familiar names. whilst not promoting ‘great man’ model of history, there are names emblematic or central to each era, some questioning unreflected-on sex lives of great philosophers, ancient and modern, plato, aristotle, descartes, kant etc. then names obviously central such as st augustine and christian rejections of the vile body, material versus spiritual, will inform centuries of thought, thus burying pagan, roman and greek celebrations of intoxicating pleasures of the body, burying such as nietzsche will later insist is part of the great lie/valuing being over becoming, which is fun to reflect on in the letters quoting his passionate correspondence (with that fraulein his sister never likes and vice-versa...). there is some great exploration of spinoza, whom i must read on again if not also try reading by. there is of course de sade, whom i must at least read more about if not by. for even where i feel if not formulate disputes with certain assertions of the author, i am engaged in thought, i am enjoying the debate, i am enjoying this perhaps not in purely philosophical way but as if just throwing out ideas to receptive conversationalist at the cafe... fun, this...
so this is book to be read but not consumed, deconstruction for fun, not profit (prophet?)... something to return to whenever moved, something never resolved, something as fun (or should be?) as sex (should be?)...
more:
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman
Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters—And How to Get It
The New Male Sexuality
and:
Philosophizing About Sex
The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
Sex Without Love
September 13, 2025
Una cita a ciegas entre dos amantes que se sienten atraídos, desbocados, desde tiempos remotos, pero que nunca han llegado a entenderse del todo: sexo y filosofía se pelean, se desean, se rehúyen. Y un tercer personaje, que recoge a ese primer término y vive una historia de amor con él: la literatura, el lugar donde el sexo llega a cobijarse después de su trama turbada con la filosofía.
Creo que la manera en la que está escrito este texto es toda una declaración de intenciones: Dufourmantelle —filósofa, psicoanalista— tiene una pluma exquisita con la que elabora este ensayo, de una manera casi poética (literaria, definitivamente). Ella se rinde ante sus propias conclusiones y no trata el tema de manera explícitamente filosófica. Por supuesto, la filosofía, como un amante pasado, se cuela todavía, en cada párrafo, pero esto es un texto de carácter literario, defendería yo.
Aún así, las reflexiones de Dufourmantelle, la belleza con la que se proponen, siempre consiguen una lectura agradecida. Dufourmantelle es una autora muy especial y cada libro suyo es único, como dijo Luna Miguel una vez; pero, aún así, su voz dulce y seductora es un hilo conductor que hace que no sea capaz de dejar de perseguir esta autora, de desear encontrarme con la siguiente obra suya. Siempre recomendadísima, este libro es en especial para los obsesionados con el deseo (el sexo — el cuerpo), la filosofía y la buena literatura.
Creo que la manera en la que está escrito este texto es toda una declaración de intenciones: Dufourmantelle —filósofa, psicoanalista— tiene una pluma exquisita con la que elabora este ensayo, de una manera casi poética (literaria, definitivamente). Ella se rinde ante sus propias conclusiones y no trata el tema de manera explícitamente filosófica. Por supuesto, la filosofía, como un amante pasado, se cuela todavía, en cada párrafo, pero esto es un texto de carácter literario, defendería yo.
Aún así, las reflexiones de Dufourmantelle, la belleza con la que se proponen, siempre consiguen una lectura agradecida. Dufourmantelle es una autora muy especial y cada libro suyo es único, como dijo Luna Miguel una vez; pero, aún así, su voz dulce y seductora es un hilo conductor que hace que no sea capaz de dejar de perseguir esta autora, de desear encontrarme con la siguiente obra suya. Siempre recomendadísima, este libro es en especial para los obsesionados con el deseo (el sexo — el cuerpo), la filosofía y la buena literatura.
August 10, 2024
“Sex accedes to the separated, right up to the fusion of bodies, precisely because it transcends nothing in the instant: there are two pairs of lips, two bodies, two languages and worlds, two faces or several or even a multitude, but separation is maintained, and only in the present. We cannot remember "two": we remember the other or the self, we recompose the magic placentary or cosmic unity, we call for the dream of another self more intimate than our own self, we evoke the absent brother, the loved being, the lost love; we navigate between absence and terror. But only in the present does sex grant itself as pure experience of a separation to be maintained from edge to edge within the self, as exile and silence, because the other will never traverse this ultimate space to forgive you for having forgotten him or her.”
experience i will keep repeating to keep gleaning from, salve for my guilty gluttony.
experience i will keep repeating to keep gleaning from, salve for my guilty gluttony.
May 8, 2019
Toujours aussi intéressant de découvrir la pensée de la psychanalyste Anne Dufourmantelle. Ici elle nous aide à appréhender la notion de sexe comme pivot indépassable de la pensée, en passant par Sade, et bien sur Foucault.
Définitivement contemporain.
Définitivement contemporain.
December 10, 2025
موضوع صعب بالتأكيد وكأنه محاولة خلق حوار بين الزمان والمكان
وعلى أي حال فالكتاب جاء على شكل قصة للقاء بين شيئين لا يلتقيان
لذا بقي يحاول فقط لفت الانتباه للمقاربات والمقارنات بينهما بلغة عامّة
مع شواهد قليلة من أقوال وتجارب الفلاسفة عن العلاقات الخاصة
.
"من أيّة نجوم سقطنا حتى يكتب لنا اللقاء هنا؟"
- نيتشة لسالومي
وعلى أي حال فالكتاب جاء على شكل قصة للقاء بين شيئين لا يلتقيان
لذا بقي يحاول فقط لفت الانتباه للمقاربات والمقارنات بينهما بلغة عامّة
مع شواهد قليلة من أقوال وتجارب الفلاسفة عن العلاقات الخاصة
.
"من أيّة نجوم سقطنا حتى يكتب لنا اللقاء هنا؟"
- نيتشة لسالومي
October 5, 2017
A very original essay.
October 13, 2024
Creo que es mi filósofa preferida de este siglo.
April 12, 2013
I have to read it again. Deconstruction bugs the crap out of me. It's good that there are people writing about philosophy who are willing to pull down philosophy's pants, but not all of us need that particular prop-comic gag to understand how much of philosophy's reputation depends on dick jokes.
If you understand this review, you probably don't need to read the book. Unless, upon a second reading, I realize I'm wrong, and there's more to this than the usual.
If you understand this review, you probably don't need to read the book. Unless, upon a second reading, I realize I'm wrong, and there's more to this than the usual.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews