John Russons 'Bearing Witness To Epiphany'

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The Necessity of Sex in Ethics In this paper I will examine John Russons’s Bearing Witness to Epiphany and prove that his argument in the fourth chapter is that sexuality is essential in order for people to live ethically. Sexuality allows oneself to experience freedom by creating bonds with others that opens doors to new set of human values and ethics that would not be discovered otherwise. Erotic experiences allow one to truly experience the other person as an individual, which also allows one to discover oneself as person. This openness to the other individual in the erotic bond is the epiphany of the other, which is the foundation of ethics. Russon argues that sexuality is foundation of meaningfulness and a developed human life. An erotic experience allows us to sense ourselves as individuals. Engaging in an erotic experience causes the emergence of our sense of individuals because we experience the epiphany that “I am this body.” (76) This erotic epiphany allows us to truly recognize ourselves and the other person jointly desiring in our mutual desires. Since this experience is accomplished with another person, it becomes an experience of freedom because…show more content…
He states that an erotic relationship provides the domain for oneself to truly experience and discover their own person. The freedom that one finds in the erotic domain cannot be found elsewhere and is the only way one can accomplish this fundamental experience. It is the natural development of sexuality and erotic life that compels us to undergo self-transformation, which consequently initiates us into a realm of social responsibility. It is only through erotic experiences that our engrained nature, the desire to be desired, is truly
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