Eduard von Hartmann, argued that we have to be bribed into sex, our reason shut down, because sex leads to no good: marriage, the pain of childbirth, disappearing money, disillusionment in love. Just about the worst thing that can happen, Hartmann thought, is to become conscious that “the dreamed-of bliss in the arms of the beloved one is nothing but the deceptive bait” used to get us to procreate. We have the illusion of control, but, of course, it’s our unconscious breeding instinct, working through our brains, that’s driving our behavior.
