Changes

==Description==

==Description==

'''Eroticism''' (from the [[Greek]] ἔρως, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_(love) eros]—"[[desire]]") is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or [[anticipation]] of such – an insistent sexual [[impulse]], desire, or pattern of [[thoughts]], as well as a philosophical [[contemplation]] concerning the [[aesthetics]] of sexual desire, sensuality and [[romantic]] [[love]]. As French novelist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honore_de_Balzac Honore de Balzac] pointed out, ''eroticism'' is dependent not just upon an [[individual]]'s sexual [[morality]], but the [[Milieu|culture and time]] that individual resides in as well.

'''Eroticism''' (from the [[Greek]] ἔρως, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_(love) eros]—"[[desire]]") is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or [[anticipation]] of such – an insistent sexual [[impulse]], desire, or pattern of [[thoughts]], as well as a philosophical [[contemplation]] concerning the [[aesthetics]] of sexual desire, sensuality and [[romantic]] [[love]]. As French novelist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honore_de_Balzac Honore de Balzac] pointed out, ''eroticism'' is dependent not just upon an [[individual]]'s sexual [[morality]], but the [[Milieu|culture and time]] that individual resides in as well.

 

Because the [[nature]] of what is erotic is fluid, early [[definitions]] of the term attempted to [[conceive]] eroticism as some form of sensual or [[romantic]] love or as the human [[sex]] drive ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido libido]); for example, the ''Encyclopédie'' of 1755 states that the erotic "is an epithet which is applied to everything with a [[connection]] to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize...a dissoluteness, an excess". However, because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer's [[culture]] and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines the erotic, [[critics]] have often confused eroticism with pornography, going so far as to say: "[Eroticism] is simply high-class pornography; better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of [[consumer]]." This [[confusion]], as Lynn Hunt writes, "[[demonstrate]] the difficulty of drawing...a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the [[pornographic]]": indeed arguably "the history of the [[separation]] of pornography from eroticism...remains to be [[written]]".

Because the [[nature]] of what is erotic is fluid, early [[definitions]] of the term attempted to [[conceive]] eroticism as some form of sensual or [[romantic]] love or as the human [[sex]] drive ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido libido]); for example, the ''Encyclopédie'' of 1755 states that the erotic "is an epithet which is applied to everything with a [[connection]] to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize...a dissoluteness, an excess". However, because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer's [[culture]] and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines the erotic, [[critics]] have often confused eroticism with pornography, going so far as to say: "[Eroticism] is simply high-class pornography; better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of [[consumer]]." This [[confusion]], as Lynn Hunt writes, "[[demonstrate]] the difficulty of drawing...a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the [[pornographic]]": indeed arguably "the history of the [[separation]] of pornography from eroticism...remains to be [[written]]".

Modern French conceptions of eroticism can be traced to [[The Enlightenment]], when "in the eighteenth century, dictionaries defined the erotic as that which concerned [[love]]...eroticism was the intrusion into the [[public]] sphere of something that was at base [[private]]". This theme of intrusion or transgression was taken up in the twentieth century by the French philosopher [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bataille Georges Bataille], who argued that eroticism performs a [[function]] of [[dissolving]] [[boundaries]] between human [[subjectivity]] and [[humanity]], a transgression that dissolves the [[rational]] world but is always temporary, as well as that, "[[Desire]] in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the [[taboo]]. It [[presupposes]] man in [[conflict]] with himself". For Bataille, as well as many French theorists, "Eroticism, unlike simple [[sexual]] [[activity]], is a [[psychological]] [[quest]]...eroticism is assenting to [[life]] even in [[death]]".[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic]

Modern French conceptions of eroticism can be traced to [[The Enlightenment]], when "in the eighteenth century, dictionaries defined the erotic as that which concerned [[love]]...eroticism was the intrusion into the [[public]] sphere of something that was at base [[private]]". This theme of intrusion or transgression was taken up in the twentieth century by the French philosopher [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bataille Georges Bataille], who argued that eroticism performs a [[function]] of [[dissolving]] [[boundaries]] between human [[subjectivity]] and [[humanity]], a transgression that dissolves the [[rational]] world but is always temporary, as well as that, "[[Desire]] in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the [[taboo]]. It [[presupposes]] man in [[conflict]] with himself". For Bataille, as well as many French theorists, "Eroticism, unlike simple [[sexual]] [[activity]], is a [[psychological]] [[quest]]...eroticism is assenting to [[life]] even in [[death]]".[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic]

==See also==

==See also==

*'''''[[Pornography]]'''''

*'''''[[Pornography]]'''''

[[Category: Psychology]]

[[Category: Psychology]]

[[Category: Philosophy]]

[[Category: Philosophy]]