To browse Academia. Deonna and E. Tieffenbach ed. Paris: Editions d'Ithaque. Consult published version to quote.
It is not, however, always used appropriately. The erotic, for example, is sometimes confused with what triggers sexual arousal. Causing sexual arousal is not sufficient, however, because direct stimulation, by genital friction or brain probe, would not plausibly be called erotic.
Neither is it necessary: for just as one may understand why something is funny without being moved to laughter, so one might perceive that something is erotic without experiencing any arousal. What, then, is the erotic, and in what sense can one say that it is a value? The erotic, value, and teleology Is the erotic a value? Or does it have value? If something is a value, its presence can confer some degree of importance on other things. If it has a value, then its benefits derive ultimately from some characteristic which itself has intrinsic value.
What nobody cares or could care about is necessarily devoid of it; thus, in order to understand the erotic as a value, we must understand to what states of mind and to what mechanism it is linked, as well as how we care about it and for what reason. Although the erotic cannot be identified with either arousal or desire, the three are evidently linked. At the same time, arousal and desire can lead to reproduction.
One might, therefore, be tempted to seek the point or aim of the erotic in the fact that selective pressure favors whatever facilitates mating. In this case, the positive value of the erotic would be derived from this biological imperative. It might then be thought that the biological role played by sexual arousal in reproduction ensures its positive valence.
