Human relationship with sex

The argument

This argument locates the human difference in a relationship rather than a capacity: our relationship — or obsession — with sex is what separates the human mind from the mind of other animals. The claim is that we have effectively decoupled the act of sex from the act of reproduction, so that the primary function of sex, as humans actually practise it, is not to reproduce. The decoupling is presented as a matter of proportion rather than of principle. In the UK only 0.1% of all heterosexual acts result in the fertilization of an egg — and that figure does not include non-heterosexual acts or acts of masturbation, which, were they to be included, would push the percentage significantly lower. On this reading the reproductive outcome is the rare exception in human sexual behaviour rather than its point, which means the behaviour cannot be explained by the function it almost never serves. What fills the explanatory gap is the mind. If sex is overwhelmingly pursued for reasons other than reproduction, then what is being pursued is the experience itself — something imagined, anticipated, elaborated, and valued independently of any consequence. That is a mental achievement rather than a physical one: it requires the capacity to detach an act from its biological purpose and to want it for its own sake. Enjoying sex for the sake of it is therefore described as a unique function of the human mind. The contrast drawn is with other animals, which on this account fornicate to reproduce, their sexual behaviour remaining tied to the function that produced it. Because the human pattern can only be explained by a mind that has separated an act from its purpose, this argument holds that it is the human mind which separates humans from animals.

Context

Our relationship with sex is unique in the animal kingdom. This is what differentiates us from other species.

Premises

Counter-arguments

There are many other specials who copulate for the enjoyment of the act. There are examples of male bears performing acts of fellatio on each other, goats that perform autofellatio, otters that fornicate with dead peers, orangutans building masturbatory aids out of sticks, hyenas engaging in clitoral licking, and one case of a dolphin using an electric eel wrapped around his penis to masturbate.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Other animals also engage in sexual activities for pleasure.