A Body of One's Own
Samaritanism, Sex, and Self‐Ownership
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6325432 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Thrasher (0000-0001-9094-5283, Philosophy Department & Smith Institute for Philosophy and Political Economy Chapman University Orange California USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 285-295 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy & Public Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0048-3915 • E-ISSN: 1088-4963 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/papa.12289 |
| OpenAlex | W4410277413 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 35 |
Robust Samaritan theories hold that citizens may be pressed to share whatever others need for minimal flourishing. Cécile Fabre extends that duty to organs, labor, and even sexual services, while Cohen's ideal of an “egalitarian ethos” asks citizens to internalize such claims. I show that coupling these ideas with a rejection of even minimal selfownership yields a trilemma: Bodily resources can be commandeered, everyone is motivated to comply, and rape loses its status as a wrongful taking. Efforts to cordon off sex because of concerns with trauma, autonomy, or cash compensation either become ad hoc or smuggle rights back into the body. What survives is a narrow but decisive principle of self‐ownership that forbids compelled use of another's person, while still leaving room for redistributive justice in external goods. Defending this minimal self‐ownerhsip as sovereignty does not entail libertarianism; but it preserves the practical and conceptual wrongness of rape and sustains the moral significance of sexual consent
Autonomy · Compensation (psychology · Ethos · Ideal (ethics · Law and economics · Libertarianism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Feminism, Gender, and Intersectionality · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |