Lecture
Sex, Women and Marriage within the Boundaries of Pure Reason

Join us in celebrating Immanuel Kant and his lasting principles, this time with Fitzerald Kennedy Sitorus and moderator Ikhaputri Widiantini on the topic of sex, woman, and marriage within the limits of pure reason.

Wed, 28.08.2024
06:00 GoetheHaus Jakarta

Fitzerald Kennedy Sitorus will discuss three themes that are rarely associated with Kant's philosophy. In fact, Kant himself had no personal experience. They are sex, women, and marriage. Throughout his life, Kant remained a bachelor. He was also not known to have close female friends. But does this mean these themes were absent from Kant's thoughts? Certainly not.

He considered these three themes with great seriousness: purely rationally, critically, and based on the autonomy and dignity of humans. Nowadays, Kant's thoughts might be considered outdated on one hand, but on the other, they still resonate.

Kant also offered insights into various phenomena of sexuality, such as extramarital sex, masturbation, polygamy, prostitution, incest, homosexuality, and sexual orientation. Kant understood sexuality as part of the animality in humans. Therefore, in his view, he rejected certain sexual practices as they conflicted with one's duty to oneself. As an advocate of heterosexual marriage, he formulated several views. He believed that marriage neutralizes the tendency of sexual desire to degrade partners into objects or tools: producing “equality in difference” Kant's sexual anthropology is teleological.

Through sexual activity, humans – whom he called the Supreme Artist (der höchste Künstler) produce offspring and perpetuate the human race within the framework of marriage – fulfilling “nature's intention” (Naturabsicht) without realizing it themselves. 

The lecture will be moderated by Ikhaputri Widiantini.

Fitzerald Kennedy Sitorus
is a lecturer in philosophy at Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH), Tangerang, with research interests in the philosophy of Kant and Hegel. He graduated from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, magna cum laude with a dissertation on Immanuel Kant's philosophy of the transcendental subject. As an academic and philosopher, he actively publishes on the philosophy of Kant and Hegel, and often gives seminars and philosophy courses at Komunitas Salihara, Komunitas Utan Kayu, Jakarta, and in various forums and campuses.

Ikhaputri Widiantini
has been a lecturer for the Bachelor-level Philosophy Study Program at Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, since 2007.  Previously, she was responsible for educational projects at Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, became the editor of Jurnal Perempuan from 2009-2011, and is still actively assisting as a guest editor at the said institution. In addition, she has also conducted many research and publications related to the themes of sexual violence, feminist aesthetics, and contemporary art.