Sexual realism has traditionally held that our categories of sex refer to something real about our biology. Sexual non-realism, on the other hand, either partially or wholly rejects this position. Sexual non-realists typically point to intersexuality as evidence that our categories of sex are not inherent to nature but are culturally constructed. This paper makes use of the work of Carrie Hull in her book The Ontology of Sex to explore the philosophical backgrounds of sexual non-realism and to make a (...) general case for sexual realism from a Thomistic framework. (shrink)

Dr. Jennings states that his purpose in _The Universe and Life_ is to “try to show what positive outlook on life and the world is given by the study of biological science; and how this differs, if at all, from the outlook based on physics, or from the outlook presented in some of the religions of the world.” He believes that the study of biology aids in getting a unified view of the universe and of man in his relations with (...) it, and that it helps particularly in the problems of managing life, the problems of conduct, and in the determination of our attitude toward the world. Did life always exist? Does development produce what is really new? Do feelings, ideas, and knowledge have a function in the world? Was what occurs today predictable before life came into the world? Is man indispensable to the advancement of life? Does the study of biology lead to the belief that life tends toward a goal that is already existent? Does it lead to the divine right of the aristocrat? Do individuals continue to live after the event we call death? Professor Jennings sets forth his answers to these and other provocative questions in simple and clear-cut style, and concludes that life “is progressing in the present as it has in the past. In the future it may be expected to advance as it has done in the past—to heights that no one can predict, to which no one can set limits.”. (shrink)