Sexual morality is probably the very last topic on which a sensible person would want to defend Kant's views. On many subjects, a better understanding discovers Kant's position to be more defensible than it seemed at first, but here honest inquisitiveness does little to improve the overall situation and in some ways only makes it worse. Some of Kant's views about sex are so extreme as to be either ridiculous or abhorrent to all enlightened people. However, not everything Kant said on the subject of sexual morality deserves such scorn. And if we look a little beneath the surface and also pry into some corners of Kant's work that seldom get much attention, we will find that even on this topic there is more originality and insight in some of Kant's thoughts than is usually appreciated. There is even one adventurous strand in Kant's texts that might permit Kantian ethics to correct most of Kant's own wrongheaded official pronouncements.

Sexual Desire

Kant's treatment of sexual morality depends on two principal ideas, both of which must seem at best highly dubious to any enlightened person today: The first idea is that respect for rational nature requires respect for the natural teleology of our desires, joined with the traditional doctrine that the sole natural purpose of sexual desire is procreation. Kant uses this traditional doctrine as a ground for condemning, with appalling harshness, what he regards as “unnatural” sex acts, including homosexuality, bestiality, and masturbation.