Dear Prudence...

Recreational Sex: The Moral Justification for Being a Slut

The Virtue of Erotic Pleasure [<—my  actual paper title]

Virtues, an ontological difficulty to define insofar as its characterization of different moral standards dependent on one’s background, religion, culture, and general upbringing.  Although there are numerous universal virtues that are widely accepted, Zarathustra, the chief character from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, rejects the universality of virtues. “If you have a virtue…then you have [it] in common with nobody”.  Virtues are your own and no one else’s, if your virtue is a shared virtue, then it must be because it is personally appropriate and not because of an external requisition.  He goes on to declare that “[he does] not want it as divine law; [nor does he] not want it as human statute and need”.  Virtue is not god given, nor is it governmentally mandated.  Virtue is something that rises from your own passions.  That is, our passion is our innate enthusiasm to do or be something, while our virtue is our moral consecration of that passion in order to engage the overman.  Passion is an appropriation of your virtues wherein it directly complements your personality, your character, and no one else’s.  As these virtues grow from your passions, “they become your virtues and passions you enjoyed” (ZI.5 “On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions” Pg. 36).  You must love your virtue “as a mother her child” (ZII.5 “On the Virtuous” Pg. 94).  To love your own virtue allows you to pursue the overman not because it is required of you, but because you believe it to be true.  The virtue you love and hold true to yourself gives you a certain power, a certain drive to be the best that you can be.  So long as your virtue is your own and neither an external demand nor a virtue as a means to an end, then pursuing it engages the overman in a purer, more genuine fashion.  That is, by bettering your virtue and molding your passion you will be able to engage the overman in an authentic manner wherein it does not become a chore, but a willingness and a fervent desire to do so.  No matter where you came from, “your passions [become] virtues and all your devils, angels” (ZI.5 “On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions” Pg. 36).  For Zarathustra, even ‘evil’ passions labeled by Christianity can be turned into virtues.  For example, hate and lust can be virtues that a person can manifest and do no evil if he follows Zarathustra’s teaching. 

            The pursuit of a virtuous erotic pleasure seems counterintuitive due to the nature of the definition and connotation of ‘erotic’.  However, the procurement of it as a virtue can be done by Zarathustra’s teachings.  Erotic pleasure as a virtue maintains itself for the fact that it is “happiness that is the great parable of a higher happiness and the highest hope” (ZIII.10 “On the Three Evils” Pg. 188).  Sensual pleasure is an emotional state of euphoria in which the comparability of that happiness is distinctive.  The utter jubilation of sexual delight brings hope to those in practice the inspiration to achieve overman.  As erotic pleasure is a passion, then it will become a virtue (ZI.5 “On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions” Pg. 36).  The malevolent features of erotic pleasure will only manifest if the virtue is conflicting with other virtues.  “Behold how each virtue covets what is highest: …each wants your whole spirit…your whole strength.”  To possess only one virtue is comfortable, but to enjoy numerous virtues is taxing insofar as it begins to complicate the authenticity of pursuing a single virtue.  That is, to manifest several virtues at once would be difficult since you must equally distribute your concentration to enhance them, like juggling several balls at once.  It is much easier to toss one ball than to juggle seven at once.  However, Zarathustra does not condemn the manifestation of several virtues at once, he condones the evil of “war and battle…[as] necessary; necessary [is] the…calumny among [the] virtues” to utilize the overman.  To engage the overman, one must be in constant struggle and to overcome those resistances to exponentially be better.  Erotic pleasure as a virtue is not impossible as long as “you shall love your virtues, for you will perish of them” (ZI.5 “On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions” Pg. 37).  Do not let the passion of erotic pleasure run rampant within you.  You must develop the virtue of erotic pleasure simply to be a part of your being and to ultimately overcome man.

             Zarathustra conceives sensual pleasure as a moral virtue.  In spite of this, there are people who seek erotic pleasure who do not inspire their spirits to ascend to the state of overman.  Zarathustra rejects lust since it does nothing to achieve overman.  That is, lust is an excessive desire for sexual pleasure.  It is not a spiritual desire that aids to the attainment of the overman; rather it is an emotional desire that stagnates the soul to a hedonic state.  Therefore, “it is bad to live in cities: there too many are in heat” (ZI.13 “On Chastity” Pg. 54).  Being in heat is to burn inside with lust and sensuality.  The burning is a feeling of inadequacy.  Rather than freely pursuing your virtue of erotic pleasure, you inhibit your virtue.  If you cannot pursue your virtue, then you cannot reach overman.  So, lust is a hindrance to your pursuit of the virtue of erotic pleasure.  Furthermore, those who “know of nothing better on earth than to lie with a woman” are people with lustful eyes (ZI.13 “On Chastity” Pg. 54).  If the epitome of your existence is to lay with women, then you are not achieving the overman.  Rather, you are driven with lust.  The lust that burns within your soul to sleep with women distract your spirit to reach overman since your desire for female skin is all that you know.  To pursue erotic pleasure as a virtue, you must practice with intent to achieve overman rather than blind your senses with solely laying with women.  That is, to be a better being you must pursue the virtue of erotic pleasure to become a better lover rather than lusting for the skin of women.  Zarathustra acknowledges man’s pursuit of erotic pleasure as a virtue, so long as it is done correctly and with the overman in mind.

            Although erotic pleasure being a virtue is counterintuitive, the pursuit of it must be done with a proper attitude, according to Zarathustra.  If you “have lied reward and punishment into the foundation of things, and now also into the foundation of your souls,” you are pursuing your virtue in an invalid manner (ZII.5 “On the Virtuous” Pg. 93-94).  Pursuing your virtues must be done as an end in itself and not a means to an end.  That is, to exercise your virtue as a peripheral pursuit to an ultimate goal is an erroneous attitude.  There is no reward for being virtuous, neither is “virtue…its own reward” (ZII.5 “On the Virtuous” Pg. 93).  You must be virtuous because it is a part of your being, not for external reasons.  To pursue your virtue for an ulterior motive is an imprecise attitude to reach the level of one’s own virtue in venery.

            To practice venery is not enough to pursue the virtue of erotic pleasure.  Rather, the vice of lust that accompanies erotic pleasure must be eradicated. If chastity is a genuine passion that dwells within you, let it guide you to the state of the overman, to make you an exponentially better being.  However, if chastity is thrust upon you from god or from the law, your spirit will burn with a desire, it will lust for erotic pleasure that you have been banned from.  Again, the lust that burns deep in your soul is a desire that Zarathustra opposes.  As the “bitch, sensuality, knows how to beg for a piece of spirit when denied a piece of meat,” one must not give in to the burning lust, that will destroy a person (ZI.13 “On Chastity” Pg. 55).  The melancholic feeling from rejecting sexual pleasure only harms you and does not help you ascend to the state of the overman.  Zarathustra advises, “those for whom chastity is difficult should be counseled against it, lest it become their road to hell” (ZI.13 “On Chastity” Pg. 55).  Chastity is not suited for everyone.  The dispondent feeling you experience due to the inability to pursue your virtue of erotic pleasure hinders your being inasmuch as you feel less motivated to ascend into the state of overman.  By not being able to exercise your passion, your spirit feels oppressed to employ the state of overman. So, to be chaste when your passion is against it hinders your ascension to overman because you cannot fully motivate yourself due to the oppression of your passion, your virtue.   

            As stated before, chastity is not completely rejected by Zarathustra so long as it is your passion and your own virtue.  However, chastity as your own virtue, whether for ascetic reasons or for moral justification, can carry certain problems.  “Verily, some are chaste through and through: they are gentler of heart, fonder of laughter, and laugh more than you” (ZI.13 “On Chastity” Pg. 55).  If chastity as one’s own virtue makes you soft, Zarathustra will reject it since it allows your spirit to associate with mankind, thus prohibiting you to enter the state of overman.  To enter the state of overman, one must be cold.  In doing so, one does not let others oppress them.  One will show man to not think small and to achieve greater things by being hard.  On the other hand, chastity as an accepted virtue by Zarathustra will generate stimulation to reach overman.  So long as it is your passion to abstain from sexual pleasure, Zarathustra permits chastity as a virtue.  Chastity is permissible as long as it drives you to the state of overman. 

            Chastity is a desirable state, but Zarathustra admonishes marriage over the burning desire for lust. To lust for the sole purpose of lying with women or to be in heat generates an oppressed desire that hinders and distracts your soul from ascending to the state of overman.  You must seek erotic pleasure to become a better lover wherein your love breeds a jubilant state for you and your lover(s).  In doing so, the state of ecstasy will produce hope within your spirit to overcome man.  If one’s passion is chastity, then pursue it as a virtue to overcome man, also. Recreational sex is only acceptable to the extent in which it enthuses your being to the state of overman.