Is there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
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Is there a sexual education that is an expression
of a cultivated intelligence?
¿Cabe una educación sexual que sea expresión
de una inteligencia cultivada?
David REYERO, PhD. Associate Professor. Universidad Complutense de Madrid (reyero@ucm.es).
Abstract: dition and the necessary cultivation of virtues
This article aims to show how sex educa- in order to remain within it. In this dimension,
tion today responds to the dominance that sexuality has a meaning that is not merely bio-
philosophies of suspicion have achieved over logical but also relational, generative, and
intellectual life, a dominance that hinders a communicative, and it is subject to rules that
normative judgment of human sexuality. Any derive from our personal character and sexu-
attempt at regulation is suspected of conceal- ality’s relationship with intimacy.
ing some kind of domination by some over oth-
ers. The lack of regulations makes meaning- Keywords: sex education, thinking, affective
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
ful education about sexuality impossible and education, moral education.
only allows for education that is superficial,
instrumental, and limits itself to managing
unwanted consequences such as teenage preg- Resumen:
revista española de pedagogía
nancies and sexually transmitted infections. El presente texto pretende mostrar cómo
This work shows that there is another way of la educación sexual en la actualidad respon-
understanding intellectual life that is linked to de al dominio que las filosofías de la sospecha
moral life, open to the truth, and not just ded- han conseguido sobre la vida intelectual. Este
icated to denunciation. Thinking well involves dominio dificulta un juicio normativo sobre
living within a tradition and on the path of a la sexualidad humana. Cualquier intento de
good life. A concept of a good life supposes a normatividad es sospechoso de esconder al-
teleological understanding of the human con- gún tipo de dominación de unos sobre otros.
Revision accepted: 2020-09-28.
This is the English version of an article originally printed in Spanish in issue 278 of the revista española de
pedagogía. For this reason, the abbreviation EV has been added to the page numbers. Please, cite this article as
follows: Reyero, D. (2021). ¿Cabe una educación sexual que sea expresión de una inteligencia cultivada? | Is there a
sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence? Revista Española de Pedagogía, 79 (278), 115-129.
https://doi.org/10.22550/REP79-1-2021-05
https://revistadepedagogia.org/ ISSN: 0034-9461 (Print), 2174-0909 (Online)
115 EVDavid REYERO
La ausencia de normatividad imposibilita comprensión teleológica de la condición hu-
una educación de la sexualidad significati- mana y el necesario cultivo de unas virtudes
va y solo permite una educación superficial, para mantenerse en ella. En esa dimensión,
instrumental y limitada al manejo de las con- la sexualidad tiene un sentido no meramente
secuencias no deseadas: embarazos adoles- biológico sino relacional, generativo y comu-
centes, enfermedades de transmisión sexual, nicativo, y está sometida a unas reglas fruto
etc. Mostramos la existencia de otra forma de de nuestro carácter personal y de la relación
entender la vida intelectual ligada a la vida que la sexualidad tiene con la intimidad.
moral, abierta a la verdad y no solo dedicada
a la denuncia. Pensar bien implica vivir en Descriptores: educación sexual, pensa-
el seno de una tradición y en el camino de la miento, educación de la afectividad, educa-
vida buena. Una idea de vida buena supone la ción moral.
1. The intellectual life can explain ourselves and the reality that
In 1975, Robert Spaemann wrote an surrounds us to ourselves. But this lan-
interesting work called Is emancipation an guage also conceals or justifies asymmetric
educational goal? The article was provoca- power relationships and unequal power
tive as the concept of emancipation was distributions. According to these philoso-
in vogue at the time and still is when dis- phies of suspicion, it appears that human
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
cussing the objectives of education. His sur- beings, even when they do not know it, are
prising and quick answer is a resounding slaves as they are embedded in relation-
no, although we must now qualify it since ships they have not chosen and from which
Spaemann is certainly not proposing a ped- they do not always have the possibility of
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agogy of command, nor an ideal of a subju- emancipation. Consequently, any interest is
gated human being. The enemy Spaemann suspicious and it is the task of thought to
confronts is a specific way of understanding uncover what is hidden from view. This way
thought that is ultimately based on suspi- of understanding thought has also been ex-
cion and mistrust. How we understand hu- pressed in the field of pedagogy where it is
man thought’s relationship with education known as critical pedagogy. For critical ped-
and the different dimensions of the per- agogy, the function of the type of thought
son will depend on how we understand its we know as pedagogy is not the design of
function. For ideologues of emancipation, strategies for transmitting established
everything must start from a slow process knowledge. Instead, “critical pedagogy
of becoming self-aware of those aspects of illuminates the relationships among knowl-
ourselves that react to interests we are not edge, authority, and power. For instance, it
the masters of and which result from a tra- raises questions regarding who has control
dition. This tradition offers us meaning, a over the conditions for the production of
way of life, and a language with which we knowledge” (Giroux, 2013, p. 28).
116 EVIs there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
Critical pedagogy involves suspicion of standing of the limited character of hu-
any asymmetric relationship based on au- man life and thought. In the face of this
thority or tradition. Its objective is what limitation, the allure of novelty offers an
is known as radical democracy. This de- escape from the boredom or weariness
mocracy is the outcome of a prior peda- that so often affects the everyday. In effect,
gogical undertaking that deconstructs any thinking is not just the logical concatena-
ideology that shapes us, since “ideologies tion of ideas and arguments, but instead
are not just a constellation of ideas, stereo- involves entering into a tradition with
types, and modes of common sense; they specific practices and certain demands
also represent specific forms of knowledge that also affect the way of life and habits
and beliefs rooted in strong emotional in- that keep us in it. Thought, therefore, has
vestments. Such attachments need to be a relationship with this second nature,
understood, analysed, and deconstructed, which we call moral life, and not just with
often not simply as a form of uncompre- logic. This second nature is laboriously
hending knowledge but as an active refusal built and is always supported by a mean-
to know and the refusal ‘to acknowledge ingful language whose veracity cannot be
one’s own implication’ with such attach- discovered if we do live in it.
ments” (Giroux, 2013, p. 35). Therefore,
any ideology produces within itself some This is the sense of the critique that,
type of oppression against anyone who for example, MacIntyre (1999) makes
does not want to or cannot submit to its of Richard Rorty’s concept of critical
categories and to the norms these bring education. For Rorty, developed thought,
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
with them. critical thought, is thought that is capa-
ble of irony once it has been socialised
The role of thought is therefore to re- in a way of seeing reality. To be fair, it is
veal, or rather denounce, because behind admittedly necessary to recognise that,
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meaning there is always a hidden inter- According to Rorty, there is no possibil-
est. This way of directing the cultivation ity of thinking critically without first
of intelligence is clearly insufficient, acquiring a certain type of language and
even though it might seem attractive, comprehension of the world, something
as it would derive from the recognition he links to socialisation (Rorty, 1989).
that what is of value in thought lies in But for Rorty, what is characteristic of
its capacity for revealing/expose errors, the human being is the possibility of
abuse, or lies rather than in revealing/ casting doubt on this ultimate thought,
exposing what is of value, “interesting”, creatively ironising with it, with all of
good, or true. the consequences this entails.
The rationale of this way of under- When facing this dominant way of un-
standing thought, and consequently the derstanding intellectual life, authors such
value of the intellectual life, rests on two as MacIntyre offer alternatives. Essen-
errors. The first is a certain misunder- tially the human being is a profoundly
117 EVDavid REYERO
dependent being whose telos is to manage to For MacIntyre there are three atti-
become independent, or have independent tudes that harm the necessary virtue
thought, or its own critical thought. For of truthfulness: “A first type of offense
MacIntyre, what is unusual about this against truthfulness then consists in
journey to independence is that it can only unjustly preventing others from learn-
be done from dependency. This might seem ing what they need to learn, and a sec-
to match with the need for socialisation ond type consist in concealing from view
in Rorty, but they are not the same. For the nature of our relationships to those
MacIntyre, dependence is a precondition others” (MacIntyre, 1999, p. 151). The
for the possibility of independent thought, third aggression MacIntyre discusses is
which he calls “independent practical precisely Rorty’s irony, which he identi-
reasoning”. We can become independent fies with the sophistical attitude that is
thanks to others, not despite them. This unable to commit to a final vocabulary.
has an important implication; suspicion Why? Firstly, because a final vocabulary
when confronting received ideas is not is not a sort of superficial socialisation
the objective of human life and is not even of customs that enables us to appear be-
something essentially desirable. MacIn- fore others and be recognised, but rather
tyre (1999) states that we must have very also a vocabulary that commits us, ex-
good reasons to oppose those who love us plains us, enables us to understand the
and have taught us to be who we are. And human world, and allows it to function.
while doing this is sometimes necessary, How would a society work if we could not
and learning this difficult lesson is an really trust one another, or if we did not
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
important part of education, it is always believe that, at least to a large extent, we
necessary to have very good reasons when understand the same thing about what is
doing it. just, good, and true? How could we even
shop in the supermarket without trust-
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MacIntyre underlines the importance ing in the truthfulness of what we are
of intellectual training within a tradition, told? Should we mistrust someone who
the idea that we always learn what we are sells us a litre of milk when they say they
thanks to others, and the idea that tradi- are selling a litre of milk? Why attend
tion is something qualitatively different to class and believe our teachers if we do not
socialisation. He chooses to explore what think that what they tell us is essentially
he calls virtues of dependence, the type of true? For MacIntyre, ironic detachment
attitudes that enable a better social life. is a form of cynicism that would make so-
Truthfulness stands out among the neces- cial life unliveable. If ironic detachment
sary virtues. Here it is important to recall is genuine and not just a pose, if it truly
that for Rorty any discourse on truthful- questions the foundations on which we
ness is an inconvenience while for MacIn- have been socialised, we would be at the
tyre it is fundamental, not just for thought, mercy of the strongest, the most power-
understood as pure cognition, but also for ful, those who have the most resources
the formation of moral judgement. for imposing their agenda.
118 EVIs there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
For MacIntyre, criticism is not always life marked by experience of shared knowl-
necessary or of value for advancing in edge that is the fruit of a same tradition.
knowledge. MacIntyre criticises the idea Knowledge
of placing the foundations of the intellec-
per connaturalitatem, as a man recog-
tual life in the field of mistrust and doubt.
nizes his beloved or what is his own. The
His essential argument relates to progress
stranger does not understand, or misun-
through virtue. For example: if we ask our- derstands, but one who is allied with ano-
selves why we would not betray a friend ther in love and congeniality knows imme-
if it benefits us, this means that we are diately, and with absolute certainty, what
still at a very basic level of comprehension is meant in a fragment of a letter or a
of what friendship means. A person who dimly heard call. (Pieper, 2011)
progresses in the cultivation of this virtue
will reach a point where he can no longer This idea leads us to the second error
ask himself this question, and this inabil- of suspicious thought. Models derived
ity is an achievement that gives a better from suspicion paradoxically result in
and more perfect thought and situates the exaltation of the apparently creative
him before the possibility of having better or original and of identity and sentimen-
judgement with regards to the practice of tality. Identitarian postmodernism is the
friendship. inevitable child of rationalist modernity
which is the mother of the philosophies of
In summary, the cultivated intellectu- suspicion.
al life is not that which is born from mis-
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
trust or questioning, because questioning As we have just seen, modernity, the
our interests, their history and genealogy origin of the critical thinking being dis-
is insufficient and is not even useful. We cussed here, tried to break its bonds with
must have interests and these interests tradition and with a way of thinking
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are achieved in another way. A fully hu- that derives from a profound teleological
man life is a life with interests (Spaemann, view of the human being. This break has
2003). The true intellectual life is one that been a tough blow for the formation of
is born from insight and improvement thought, which now has no criteria other
in the search for truly valuable goods or than its own originality and its capaci-
practices, and this thought requires prac- ty for seduction. The validity of thought
tice and full immersion in a particular now lies in the creativity it displays or
type of life, whether it be scientific, philo- in its capacity to entertain or dazzle, not
sophical, humanist, or religious. Thinking in its power to unravel human nature.
well involves living in a certain way and It is in this very ordinary sense that, for
not just reasoning in a given way. From example, adolescents are captivated by
this perspective, we can understand that fashionable series that offer channels
phenomena such as communion, have the for desire behind an attractive façade
same sense and the same mentality, they while at the same concealing important
are the consequence of a given intellectual aspects of human nature.
119 EVDavid REYERO
If all that remains is suspicion, we can For example, contrasting the two most
only turn to the experience of our own de- classical currents of sex education in the
sire, which, without reliable criteria for United States, “Abstinence Only” and
judgment or reference, is the only thing “Comprehensive Sex Education”, reveals
that appears to be truly real. What do I do very different conceptions of value and
with my desire, which feels like an ache morality. For the former, full sexual rela-
constantly demanding my attention? In tions outside of wedlock are immoral per
the absence of other substantive criteria, se, and information about ways of avoid-
all that remains is to prioritise this de- ing pregnancy can be counterproductive
sire fully, and as long as it does not affect as it encourages adolescents to do sexual
others, this seems to be the most rational activities for which they are not psycho-
course. Consequently, the intellectual life logically ready, which are morally repre-
is a life that accompanies or finds reasons hensible, and which by their very nature
to justify or legitimise this desire. can lead to everything their opponents
also want to avoid, sexually transmitted
infections and teenage pregnancies, with
2. The formation of human sexu- the consequent fall into poverty, margin-
ality and tradition alisation, etc.
There is a strong relationship between
the intellectual life that stems from phi- In contrast, the supporters of what
losophies of suspicion and the current Americans call comprehensive sex edu-
conception of sexuality and its formation. cation maintain that it is not true that
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
Education, in the contemporary world, information about different methods of
as described above, only concerns itself contraception encourages earlier sexual
with the most negative consequences activity. They also argue that there is a
of sexuality: teenage pregnancy, sexual- right to information about sex and to ed-
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ly transmitted infections, consideration ucation in the practices that permit “safe
of different sexual identities and orien- sex”. Their ultimate reasoning is that we
tations, or the patriarchy, which refers live in a plural society and we do not all
to the supposed unequal distribution of share the same fundamental anthropolog-
power between men and women. In any ical concepts, so what we have to solve is
case, we can study sexuality so long as we not a moral problem as such — although
do not enter into the question of proper for some people it is — but a public health
or improper behaviour, terminology of issue on which we all agree (Fine, 1988;
which we should be suspicious. But talk- Fine & McClelland, 2006; Collins et al.,
ing about sexuality at school has never 2002; Santelli et al., 2017). Within this
been simple, here or anywhere. This is current there is another series of studies
because the debate about what school can that set out to go beyond the perspec-
or should say about this matter is marked tive centred on adolescent sex as a risk
by deep-rooted and rival anthropological activity to focus on a positive consider-
conceptions (Irvine, 2004). ation, according to them, of adolescent
120 EVIs there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
sexuality, emphasising its importance as ply through technical control of unwanted
an individualising force and a space for consequences, through information about
confronting dominant models in relation- condoms and “safe practices”, also display
ships between men and women (Tolman, laziness, as they voluntarily eschew enter-
2012; Tolman, & McClelland, 2011; Hard- ing into the meaning of sexual desire for
en, 2014). But however positively they the human being and so they break any
regard their approach, their analysis is type of bond with the meanings sexuali-
supported on a sociological, or at most ty has traditionally had. Their proposal is
psychological, dimension of the phenome- also lazy in that it leaves adolescents with-
non of human sexuality. They never enter out reference points for understanding
into the anthropological dimension or the their desire and how to confront it.
dimension of meaning.
Both move among the remains of an
The problem with these two methods understanding in a world where the link
is that both encounter the same obsta- between sexuality, stability, love, and re-
cle, which is essentially intellectual and production has been broken. A world where
which we could call “puritanism” or sim- easy access to contraceptive methods,
plicity. The term “puritanism” here has and a complete availability of sex online
the same sense Roger Scruton gives it: for prevail.
him, puritanism is a form of laziness that
when faced with a complex problem at- To deal with the subject of human sex-
tempts to overcome it by the easiest route uality and how cultivating the intellectual
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
(Scruton, 2009, p. 139). As education in life can help with its formation, it is neces-
affection, of which education about sexual sary to understand that there is a way of
desire is a part, is a complex matter that approaching this dimension of the person
requires diligent and sustained work, yet that does not derive from the pedagogy of
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people apply the easy solution of pure suspicion, nor from acknowledgement of
negation of desire or treat the most dis- the existence of a desire that there is no
agreeable and inconvenient aspects of reason to repress so long as it is done with
its expression. Those who argue for the sole limit of not causing harm to others.
route of the simple option of abstinence Instead it derives from the capacity to
are lazy if they focus on this point alone, learn attentively from history and expe-
as they set out to solve a problem with- rience while seeking the meaning of our
out helping to cultivate the virtues that affective sexual reality. What can we learn
are necessary to channel affection, nor do from this observation?
they show the beauty of achieving it. The
actual results thus seem to be ineffective Firstly, sexuality is an important di-
(Santelli et al., 2017). mension that must be approached with-
out the purely defensive and fearful at-
On the other hand, those who set out titude with which it has perhaps been
to resolve the matter of sex education sim- approached educationally in other periods,
121 EVDavid REYERO
but also without trivialising it. Sexuality is is the human way of marking practices
an important part of processes of individ- that are socially important.
ualisation and human growth and is, in a
way, sacred for humans since it combines However, we cannot ignore the fact
two dimensions: intimacy and the creation that in the last half century there has
of new life. been an intensive and constant process of
privatisation or deinstitutionalisation of
That sexuality is related to intimacy sex, running in parallel with an ongoing
is evident just from observing reactions separation of sexuality and reproduction.
to sexual violence. This inspires greater This separation or break has increased
revulsion than other types of violence thanks to birth control methods and the
because people see sexual violence as an revolution that these have entailed for
attack on intimacy that profoundly affects human life (Choza, 2020, p. 138-141). For
those who are subjected to it. Without Choza, this break between sex and repro-
this relationship between sexuality and duction liberates sex, which no longer has
intimacy it would be difficult to explain negative social consequences so long as
why a simple look can cause more back- the will of the other is respected. Conse-
lash than a fight over a sporting contest quently, for him the old moral architecture
in a school playground. Moreover, the re- built around the connection between sex
lationship between sexuality and repro- and reproduction now lacks meaning and
duction is evident, even if people try to is hard to transmit. He understands that
deny it. No matter how much people talk on the whole there is a gain in this process
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
of safe sex nowadays as a practice that (Choza, 2020, p.273-276).
cannot lead to pregnancy, it remains true
that we all come from a sexual relation- Choza anticipates, perhaps premature-
ship. The constant regulation of sexuali- ly, that the break between reproduction
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ty that different cultures have exercised and sexuality will not have effects on in-
originates in this connection between timacy. However, this anticipation might
intimacy and reproduction. This “sanc- not be true, as the internet and other
tity” of human sexuality is apparent in current social phenomena are starting to
the mass of norms and rituals that have show us1.
historically regulated its functioning.
No bodily function is more subjected to In a recent essay, Mary Eberstadt (2019)
institutionalisation than sexuality. As claims that the problems resulting from
Spaemann says, this essential character the rise of identity politics, and which have
of human sexuality, that distinguishes it led to a great degree of polarisation and vio-
from other ways of satisfying needs, “is lent outbursts, including within academic
subjected to certain rules of humanisa- institutions, have their ultimate roots in
tion and has the privilege that derives the global sexual revolution and the rup-
from its institutionalisation” (Spae- ture this has involved for the family. Her
mann, 2017, p. 29). Institutionalisation essay refers to Alan Bloom’s famous book
122 EVIs there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
The closing of the American mind (2008). blustering, cursing, belligerence, defian-
ce, and also, as needed, promiscuity, or
In this book, Bloom complains about the
at least shout-outs thereto. (Eberstadt,
relativistic path higher education is fol-
2019, p.56)
lowing. One of the causes Bloom identified
for this relativistic trend relates to the Secondly, and relating to the above,
increase in divorce and destruction of the there is a connection between moral life
family. But what relationship might there and sexuality that is not present with
be between changes in family structure, other human needs since this dimension
new romantic relationships, the sexual brings into play various people and does
revolution, and identity politics? For Eber- so intimately. To approach this phenom-
stadt, the connecting link is the following. enon from the coordinates of our time,
Firstly, the question about identity — who we must first consider explanations from
am I? — is a universal question that was evolutionary psychology (Wilson, 2000;
traditionally answered on the basis of the Barkow, Jerome, Cosmides, & Tooby,
culture and organic relationships in which 1992) because for many people, evolution-
people were raised; parents, grandpar- ary psychology has taken the question of
ents, siblings, and cousins located us in morality out of the hands of philosophers
coordinates in which we could recognise and given it to biology (Haidt, 2013), and
ourselves and form a stable identity. The an area of human reality should not be
breakdown of these relationships has had abandoned so easily.
effects on the construction of the subject’s
identity. For example, analysing the sur- These authors understand the moral
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
vey by Elisabeth Marquardt and Norval dimension from evolutionary categories.
Glenn, we find that children of divorced In this setting, the different systems for
parents were three times as likely to agree regulating the sexual behaviour of men
with the phrase, “I felt like a different per- and women have worked most efficient-
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son with each of my parents, even when ly when guaranteeing reproduction in
I was a little kid” (Eberstadt, 2019, p.25). contexts that have now disappeared, but
This identity crisis is the source of a fear- precisely because these contexts have
ful generation that seeks certainty in the changed, these rules are now dysfunction-
construction of new identities that are im- al (Earp & Savulescu, 2020).
posed reactively. According to this same
essay, for example, the cause of the rise of Triumphant moral systems are how
an aggressive feminism: they are because they offer adaptive ad-
vantages, and not for any metaphysical
is instead an ultimately self-defeating
reason linked to essential conceptions of
but profoundly felt protective reaction
to an environment of heightened risk. In human nature. According to this type of
a world where laissez-faire sex has made explanation, as raising children demands
male companionship more peripatetic than energy and the commitment of the father,
before, some women will take on the pro- moral norms appear that benefit behav-
tective coloration of male characteristics- iours that are connected to faithfulness
123 EVDavid REYERO
and monogamy (Brandon, 2016). The tinct dimension of the personal structure
evolutionary explanation subordinates of the human being.
everything to the mechanism of natural
selection and adaptation to the environ- For example, the human being, like
ment. In fact, this sort of social Darwinism other species that use sexual reproduction,
is not always so crude and it does not set is subject to the process of pairing, but the
out to explain specific behaviours in this terms we connect to this process in the
way, but it does set out to do so with fun- human sphere such as faithfulness, for ex-
damental psychological dimensions, which ample, cannot be understood or studied in
are those that support the different moral the biological dimension. As Yela observes,
codes, and which are the outcome of evolu- “the radical difference between animal be-
tionary mechanisms (Symons, 1989). haviour and human behaviour is that the
former is always a relationship between
In the first place, the problem with the animal and its environment, while the
this type of reading of moral life is that it latter is a relationship between the human
is of little use in the world of education, being and its world” (Yela, 1996, p. 156).
either because it does not propose any The world is a reality to which we must
criteria for deciding which moral code is respond meaningfully, a reality we access
most appropriate to transmit, limiting through meaningful language and in a
itself to a pure or primarily descriptive search for meaning. Modern evolutionary
field, or because it simplifies human life psychology is not capable of understand-
excessively by turning moral debates ing this dimension because it does not
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
or dilemmas into mere linguistic games enter into its schemes, but it is vital for
that are incapable of understanding the educators, because it forms part of their
whole. The moral psychologist can analyse area of intervention. Scruton provides an
human behaviour with a perspective interesting and stimulating analysis of
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that is not qualitatively different from the problem evolutionary science encoun-
that of an ethologist who empirically ters when understanding human nature
analyses different behaviour in any so- in depth by studying the phenomenon of
cial animal. On the same lines we can laughter (Scruton, 2019).
include studies that, following these ma-
terialist paradigms, set out to offer edu- This world of meaning is the sphere
cational intervention models or windows where sexual morals and education move,
of opportunity for intervention based on as it is in it that we take charge of this di-
psycho-biological study of adolescent de- mension. This is why the language we use
velopment (Susman, Marceau, Dockray, to explain sexual realities is so important.
& Ram, 2019; Immordino-Yang, Dar- Nonetheless, philosophies of suspicion
ling-Hammond, & Krone, 2019). Nonethe- have destroyed any type of effort to give
less, the explanations they provide will a profound meaning to a language that
always be incomplete because they intends to establish some type of set of
neglect the radical and qualitatively dis- norms in this area. Despite this, it is
124 EVIs there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
necessary to approach this sexual dimen- have these properties as something from
sion with the understanding that it forms which we can free ourselves until we be-
part of the affective dimension of the come pure spirits. This is the basis of Scru-
human being, and to do so through a ton’s criticism of what he calls Kantian
language that helps understand the feminism, which does not take seriously
tendencies that underlie desires, that the essential character of our sexed corpo-
shape them and direct them to their own reality. We cannot construct our sexuality
ends in a dimension that is not purely bio- as though the body were something other
chemical but instead personal. than what we are in a disembodied dual-
ism (Scruton, 2006). Our corporeality has
However, the dominance of a merely demands at the biological level and also
deontological morality often omits those has demands in the dimension of our per-
aspects that do not relate to agreement sonal being.
between parties. This is insufficient for an
education that aims to help in the search From the subjective point of view, the
for meaning, in the process of taking first of these demands revolves around the
charge of the world including the affective need to understand that sexual pleasure is
world. A deontological ethics is insufficient not merely an inherently meaningful phys-
in this dimension and so a substantive iological response. The personal sphere of
ethics is needed. But what is a substantive sexuality is subject to the rules of relations
ethics? A substantive ethics is that sort between people and demands an openness
which takes into account the fact that as to the other as something other than a
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
human beings we configure ourselves as mere object for our enjoyment. Pleasure in
people who interpret ourselves, who need a human sexuality is not pleasure in the
a framework of reference to explain who other but pleasure with the other (Scruton,
we are and how we can achieve a good life. 2019). This openness to the other leads us
revista española de pedagogía
to recognise the especially repugnant form
Configuring oneself as a personal be- of violence involved in sexual abuse. A
ing involves understanding oneself as a type of violence that involves treating as
subject that is conscious, has aims and in- an object someone who is a subject. When
tentions, and cannot be reduced to its bi- society loses its repulsion at sexual abuse,
ological properties, “I would suggest that in a certain way, it loses the conscience of
we understand the person as an emergent the personal being.
entity, rooted in the human being but be-
longing to another order of explanation Understanding human sexuality also
than that explored by biology” (Scruton, involves accepting that it is not just our
2019, p. 30). But situating ourselves in an rationality that opens us to others, but
order of explanation other than biology that our corporeality is also relational.
does not mean separating ourselves from This relational dimension is subjected to a
the biological. We are people who are in- normativity that cooperates in our creativ-
carnated in sexed bodies; we do not simply ity and does not cancel it. When facing the
125 EVDavid REYERO
denunciations of the philosophy of suspicion go beyond satisfying sexual appetites,
we need to understand the value of moral since bonds can be strengthened when
norms as forms of liberation in this field the appetite is extinguished like in the
as well (Reyero, Gil Cantero, 2019). Here case of hunger after eating. We under-
is an example: Educated in the language stand that this is so because human sex-
of suspicion there is a current and grow- uality cannot be separated from a special
ing rejection of stable and lasting commit- type of communication and, in this case,
ments and the practices that institution- communication links us to the other in a
alise what is supposedly the freedom of way that makes us grow in a relationship
feeling (Carter & Duncan, 2017), but the of mutual assistance, and recognise our-
alternative analysis we assert will perhaps selves in the eyes of the other (Scruton,
help us to understand that it is precisely 2006).
the opposite. Chesterton explains this very
well. It is not that the institutionalisation Finally, although sexuality is a rela-
of human relationships such as marriage tional dimension that is open to the other
is merely a violent social imposition to con- and a form of communication that involves
trol a blind impulse without meaning, but intimacy, not all types of sexual relation-
rather this bond is also the expression of ships have the same demands. Scruton
a profound search for eternity and perma- claims that heterosexual relationships are
nence in the relationship that beats in the more demanding in this sense and also,
human heart. Chesterton says: precisely because of the meaning of this
difficulty, they are complementary since
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
It is not the fact that every young love
they are directed “towards an individual
is born free of traditions about binding and
whose gender confines him within anoth-
promising, about bonds and signatures and
seals. On the contrary, lovers wallow in the er world” (Scruton, 2006 p. 283)2. Hadjadj,
wildest pedantry and precision about these speaking on the same lines about his wife,
revista española de pedagogía
matters. They do the craziest things to states:
make their love legal and irrevocable. They
The closer we live, the more each of us
tattoo each other with promises; they cut
discovers our own essential solitude and
into rocks and oaks with their names and
the irrepressible alterity of the other. Si-
vows; … The startling but quite solid fact
ffreine is never as united to me as when
is that young people are especially fierce
I recognise that she escapes from me ful-
in making fetters and final ties at the very
ly. Communion involves enduring in that
moment when they think them unneces-
distance from intimacy, in the proximity of
sary. The time when they want the vow is
the mystery. (Hadjadj, 2010, p. 177)
exactly the time when they do not need it.
That is worth thinking about. (Chesterton,
2005, p. 177) But, in addition, the connection be-
tween sexuality and the creation of new
It seems clear that desire and the im- life also places heterosexual relationships
pulse that makes it possible to link sexu- on another moral plane. In sexual rela-
ality to love generates strong bonds that tions between man and woman, there is
126 EVIs there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence?
a mysterious link with a third being that terms such as shame, devotion, pas-
does not yet exist, and perhaps is not sion, lust, or concupiscence that enable
hoped for, but which is a possibility. “By us, on the one hand, to understand the
uniting their flesh they form a single flesh beauty it contains and on the other the
different from themselves” (Hadjadj, 2010, emotions that are mobilised and the
p. 178). The possibility of parenthood is a risks of a personal rather than health
sign of the type of responsibility and matu- nature that are at stake.
rity that sexuality demands.
Notes
3. Conclusion 1
It seems likely that the author did not always think
This article ends with some reflections the same way in relation to the sexual revolution of
our time. In an interesting original text from 1971,
that act as a summary.
Jacinto Choza analyses the suppression of shame in
the field of sexuality as a property of our time, and
1. It is impossible to educate in sexuality as a manifestation of the suppression of intimacy
without entering into an intellectual (Choza, 1990). He was not then conscious of the
life that is open to the search for truth degree to which this break might have been height-
ened or caused by the sexual revolution. Nonetheless,
and meaning. This openness entails
the way current adolescents expose themselves in
entering into a language that does not social media and the “transparent” and overexpo-
settle for scientific-technical rationali- sed world we are creating question the idea that
ty to explain human sexuality and also the consequences for intimacy of this revolution
does not base itself on suspicion of any are always so positive. It should be noted here that
year 79, n. 278, January-April 2021, 115-129
Choza gives shame a definition that is positive and
language that engages with teleological
even necessary for understanding intimacy and per-
explanations of the human being. Only sonal life itself: “Shame is the habit and tendency to
a language with a certain anthropolog- maintain possession of one’s own intimacy from the
ical density can offer educational path- most radical instance of the person (the ego), and
revista española de pedagogía
ways that allow us to discern which to maintain this intimacy in the state of the greatest
desires are appropriate and which are possible perfection, in pursuit of a self-giving through
which solitude is transcended and the subject per-
not, which practices do our nature jus- fects itself” (Choza, 1990, p. 28).
tice and which degrade it. 2
Roger Scruton and Martha Nussbaum had an inter-
esting discussion about this point. A summarised
2. As sex is an activity between people, version can be found in Reyero (2020).
it is subject to a specific set of norms,
the exigency of which derives from the References
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(2019). Interdisciplinary work is essential for re-
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revista española de pedagogía
129 EV¿Cabe una educación sexual que sea expresión
de una inteligencia cultivada?
Is there a sexual education that is an expression
of a cultivated intelligence?
Dr. David REYERO. Profesor Titular. Universidad Complutense de Madrid (reyero@ucm.es).
Resumen: tivo de unas virtudes para mantenerse en ella.
El presente texto pretende mostrar cómo En esa dimensión, la sexualidad tiene un sen-
la educación sexual en la actualidad respon- tido no meramente biológico sino relacional,
de al dominio que las filosofías de la sospecha generativo y comunicativo, y está sometida a
han conseguido sobre la vida intelectual. Este unas reglas fruto de nuestro carácter personal
dominio dificulta un juicio normativo sobre y de la relación que la sexualidad tiene con la
la sexualidad humana. Cualquier intento de intimidad.
normatividad es sospechoso de esconder algún
tipo de dominación de unos sobre otros. La au- Descriptores: educación sexual, pensamiento,
año 79, n.º 278, enero-abril 2021, 115-129
sencia de normatividad imposibilita una edu- educación de la afectividad, educación moral.
cación de la sexualidad significativa y solo per-
mite una educación superficial, instrumental
y limitada al manejo de las consecuencias no Abstract:
revista española de pedagogía
deseadas: embarazos adolescentes, enferme- This article aims to show how sex ed-
dades de transmisión sexual, etc. Mostramos ucation today responds to the dominance
la existencia de otra forma de entender la vida that philosophies of suspicion have achieved
intelectual ligada a la vida moral, abierta a la over intellectual life, a dominance that hin-
verdad y no solo dedicada a la denuncia. Pen- ders a normative judgment of human sexu-
sar bien implica vivir en el seno de una tradi- ality. Any attempt at regulation is suspected
ción y en el camino de la vida buena. Una idea of concealing some kind of domination by
de vida buena supone la comprensión teleoló- some over others. The lack of regulations
gica de la condición humana y el necesario cul- makes meaningful education about sexuality
Fecha de recepción de la versión definitiva de este artículo: 28-09-2020.
Cómo citar este artículo: Reyero, D. (2021). ¿Cabe una educación sexual que sea expresión de una inteligencia cultivada?
| Is there a sexual education that is an expression of a cultivated intelligence? Revista Española de Pedagogía, 79 (278),
115-129. https://doi.org/10.22550/REP79-1-2021-05
https://revistadepedagogia.org/ ISSN: 0034-9461 (Impreso), 2174-0909 (Online)
115David REYERO
impossible and only allows for education that understanding of the human condition and
is superficial, instrumental, and limits itself the necessary cultivation of virtues in order
to managing unwanted consequences such as to remain within it. In this dimension, sex-
teenage pregnancies and sexually transmit- uality has a meaning that is not merely bio-
ted infections. This work shows that there logical but also relational, generative, and
is another way of understanding intellectual communicative, and it is subject to rules that
life that is linked to moral life, open to the derive from our personal character and sexu-
truth, and not just dedicated to denuncia- ality’s relationship with intimacy.
tion. Thinking well involves living within a
tradition and on the path of a good life. A Keywords: sex education, thinking, affective
concept of a good life supposes a teleological education, moral education.
1. La vida intelectual de una tradición. Esa tradición nos ofrece
En 1975 Robert Spaemann escribió sentido, un modo de vida y un lenguaje
un interesante artículo titulado «¿Es la con el que explicarnos a nosotros mismos
emancipación un objetivo para la educa- y también la realidad que nos rodea. Pero
ción?» El artículo era provocador, pues el dicho lenguaje también oculta o justifica
concepto emancipación estaba de moda relaciones asimétricas y distribuciones
entonces y sigue estándolo cuando ha- desiguales de poder. Parecería, según es-
año 79, n.º 278, enero-abril 2021, 115-129
blamos de los fines de la educación. La tas filosofías de la sospecha, que el ser hu-
respuesta sorprendente y rápida es un ro- mano es, incluso cuando no lo sabe, escla-
tundo no, aunque habremos de matizarla vo, pues está inserto en relaciones que él
ahora porque, ciertamente, Spaemann no no ha elegido y sobre las que no siempre
revista española de pedagogía
está proponiendo una pedagogía para el tiene posibilidades de emancipación. Todo
dominio, ni tampoco un ideal de ser hu- interés es, por lo tanto, sospechoso y es
mano subyugado. El enemigo al que Spae- la labor del pensamiento desvelar lo que
mann se enfrenta es una concreta manera está oculto a la vista. Esa manera de en-
de entender el pensamiento cuyo funda- tender el pensamiento ha tenido también
mento último es la sospecha y la descon- su traducción en el ámbito de la pedago-
fianza. Según entendamos la función del gía a través de lo que se conoce como pe-
pensamiento humano, así entenderemos dagogía crítica. Para la pedagogía crítica
su relación con la educación y las distin- la función de este tipo de conocimiento,
tas dimensiones de la persona. Para los que conocemos como pedagogía, no es el
ideólogos de la emancipación, todo debe diseño de las estrategias para la trans-
partir de un lento proceso de autoconcien- misión de un conocimiento establecido,
cia de aquellos aspectos de nosotros mis- sino que «la pedagogía crítica ilumina las
mos que responden a intereses sobre los relaciones entre conocimiento, autoridad
que no somos dueños, y que son el fruto y poder. Por ejemplo, plantea preguntas
116¿Cabe una educación sexual que sea expresión de una inteligencia cultivada?
acerca de quién tiene control sobre las La razón de esta forma de entender el
condiciones en las que se produce el cono- pensamiento y, por lo tanto, el valor de la
cimiento» (Giroux, 2013, p. 15). vida intelectual descansa en dos errores.
El primero lo situaremos en una cierta
La pedagogía crítica supone la sospecha incomprensión del carácter limitado de
de toda relación asimétrica que se basa en la vida y el pensamiento humano. Ante él
una autoridad o una tradición. El objetivo se nos aparece el atractivo de la novedad
es lo que se conoce como democracia ra- como un escape frente al aburrimiento o
dical. Esta democracia es el fruto de una cansancio que sobreviene, tantas veces, a
tarea pedagógica previa que deconstruya lo habitual. En efecto, pensar no es simple-
toda ideología que nos configura, pues «las mente la concatenación lógica de ideas y
ideologías no son sólo una constelación argumentos, sino que es también introdu-
de ideas, estereotipos, y modos de sentido cirse en una tradición con unas prácticas
común; también representan formas espe- concretas y unas determinadas exigencias
cíficas de conocimiento y creencias arrai- que afectan, también, a la forma de vida
gadas en fuertes cargas emocionales. Es y los hábitos que nos mantienen en ella.
necesario comprender, analizar, y de-cons- Pensar tiene, por lo tanto, relación con esa
truir este tipo de vinculaciones, a menu- segunda naturaleza que llamamos vida
do no ya como una forma de conocimien- moral y no solo con la lógica. Esa segunda
to incomprensible, sino como un rechazo naturaleza se construye laboriosamente y
activo a saber y el rechazo a reconocer lo se sustenta siempre en un lenguaje de sen-
implicado que uno puede estar en este tipo tido cuya veracidad no puede descubrirse
año 79, n.º 278, enero-abril 2021, 115-129
de vinculaciones» (Giroux, 2013, p. 22). si no se vive en él.
Por lo tanto, toda ideología engendra en
su interior algún tipo de opresión contra Este es el sentido de la crítica que, por
quien no quiere o puede someterse a sus ejemplo, MacIntyre (2001) realiza al con-
revista española de pedagogía
categorías y a las normas que estas traen cepto de educación crítica que tiene Ri-
siempre consigo. chard Rorty. Para Rorty el pensamiento
formado, el pensamiento crítico es el que
El papel del pensamiento es, por lo es capaz de ironizar una vez ha sido socia-
tanto, desvelar, o mejor, denunciar, por- lizado en un modo de ver la realidad. Cier-
que tras el sentido hay siempre interés tamente, para ser justos hay que reconocer
oculto. Esta forma de orientar el cultivo que, según Rorty, no existe posibilidad de
de la inteligencia resulta claramente in- pensar críticamente si antes no nos hemos
suficiente, aunque pueda parecer atrac- hecho con un determinado tipo de lengua-
tiva, pues nacería del reconocimiento de je y comprensión del mundo, lo que él liga
que lo valioso del pensamiento está en su a la socialización (Rorty, 1990). Pero para
capacidad de desvelar/denunciar el error, Rorty, lo característico del ser humano es
el abuso o la mentira, más que en desve- la posibilidad de poner en cuestión, con
lar/descubrir lo valioso, lo «interesante», todas las consecuencias, ese pensamiento
lo bueno o lo verdadero. último, ironizar creativamente con él.
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