Russell cinsel ahlak için 1936 yılında dört ilke öneriyor.
Our Sexual Ethics by Bertrand Russell (1936)
“Some things can be said with some definiteness concerning sexual ethics.
In the first place, it is undesirable, both physiologically and educationally, that women should have
children before the age of 20. Our ethics should, therefore, be such as to make this a rare
occurrence.
In the second place, it is unlikely that a person without previous sexual experience, whether man or
woman, will be able to distinguish between mere physical attraction and the sort of congeniality
that is necessary in order to make marriage a success. Moreover, economic causes compel men, as
a rule, to postpone marriage, and it is neither likely that they will remain chaste in the years from
20 to 30, nor desirable psychologically that they should do so; but it is much better that, if they have
temporary relations, that they should be not with professionals, but with girls of their own class,
whose motive is affection rather than money. For both these reasons, young unmarried people
should have considerable freedom as long as children are avoided.
In the third place, divorce should be possible without blame to either party, and should not be
regarded as in any way disgraceful. A childless marriage should be terminable at the wish of one of
the partners, and any marriage should be terminable by mutual consent – a year’s notice being
necessary in either case. Divorce should, of course, be possible on a number of other grounds –
insanity, desertion, cruelty, and so on; but mutual consent should be the most usual ground.
In the fourth place, everything possible should be done to free sexual relations from the economic
taint. At present, wives, just as much as prostitutes, live by the sale of their sexual charms; and even
in temporary free relations the man is usually expected to bear all the joint expenses. The result is
that there is a sordid entanglement of money with sex, and that women’s motives not infrequently
have a mercenary element. Sex, even when blessed by the Church, ought not to be a profession. It
is right that a woman should be paid for housekeeping or cooking or the care of children, but not
merely for having sexual relations with a man. Nor should a woman who has once loved and been
loved by a man be able to live ever after on alimony when his love and hers have ceased. A woman,
like a man, should work for her living, and an idle wife is no more intrinsically worthy of respect
than a gigolo.”
