On 7/30/08, Benjamin Johnston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The relationship between cybersex and sex is of a completely different
> character to the relationship between penguins and birds.
Can you define that difference in an abstract, general way? I mean,
what is the *qualitative* difference that makes:
"cybersex is a kind of sex"
different from:
"penguin is a kind of bird"?
You may say: cybersex and phone sex lacks property X that is common
to all other forms of sex. But then, anal sex or sex with a condom do
not get a female pregnant, right? So by a similar reasoning you may
also exclude anal sex or sex with a condom as sex.
It seems that you (perhaps subjectively) require "having physical
contact" as a defining characteristic of sex. But I can imagine
someone not using that criterion in the definition of sex.
Also relevant here is Wittgenstein's idea of "family resemblance":
sometimes you may not be able to list all the defining properties of a
concept.
YKY
-------------------------------------------
agi
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