The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science

by Armand Marie Leroi

the question is not whether women experience pleasure during sex, for Aristotle thinks they should and do; rather, it is do they need to climax to conceive?* Aristotle disagrees with himself. In The Generation of Animals he argues that, although a woman usually experiences pleasure during sex, she can conceive without it and, conversely, can fail to conceive even when she ‘keeps the same pace’ as her male partner. The female orgasm is nice but not necessary. In Book X of Historia animalium, however, the orgasm seems much more important, for there he argues that during sex the menstrual fluid is secreted into an area ‘in front of the uterus’ (presumably the cervix or vagina), where it mingles with the semen. This secretion apparently happens at orgasm, for both partners have to ‘keep the same pace’ if conception is to be successful. In fact, infertility is usually due to men ‘completing quickly’ while their partners have hardly begun to do so (‘for in most things women are slower’). To determine whether premature ejaculation is indeed the cause of infertility he suggests that the man in question should have intercourse with other women to see if he can generate children – which shows an admirably empirical spirit. To solve the problem of unequal timing he also suggests that the woman should excite herself with ‘appropriate thoughts’ even as her lover dwells on his troubles to cool his ardour. It is hard to say whether the ‘orgasm nice’ or ‘orgasm necessary’ theory represent...