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A Problem in Modern Ethics
by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)
“Society lies under the spell of ancient terrorism and coagulated errors. Science is either wilfully hypocritical or radically misinformed.”
John Addington Symonds struck many an heroic note in this courageous (albeit anonymously circulated) essay. He is a worthy Virgil guiding the reader through the Inferno of suffering which emerging medico-legal definitions of the sexually deviant were prepared to inflict on his century and on the one which followed. Symonds pleads for sane human values in a world of Urnings, Dionings, Urano-Dionings and Uraniasters – in short, the whole paraphernalia of Victorian taxonomies and undigested Darwinism which, superimposed on the “terrorism” of religion, labelled and to some extent created the specimen “homosexual.”
A discussion of the “manly love” poems of Walt Whitman leads the author to speculate on a better future for the criminalised mutual passions of men; yet he is obliged to defer the dream, for “the world cannot be invited to entertain it.” (Introduction by Martin Geeson)
- Gutenberg e-text
- Wikipedia – John Addington Symonds
- LibriVox’s A Problem in Modern Ethics Internet Archive page
- Zip file of the entire book 139.6MB
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Total running time: 4:50:50
Read by Martin Geeson
In addition to the reader, this audio book was produced by:
Dedicated Proof-Listener: Dawn Larsen
Meta-Coordinator/Cataloging: Leni
mp3 and ogg files
- 00 – Title Page, Table of Contents, Introduction – 00:10:36
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[ogg vorbis - 5.6MB] - 01 – I Christian Opinion – 00:07:53
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[ogg vorbis - 4.3MB] - 02 – II Vulgar Errors – 00:12:15
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[ogg vorbis - 6.7MB] - 03 – III Literature: Descriptive – 00:08:15
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[ogg vorbis - 4.5MB] - 04 – Literature: Medico-Forensic – 00:16:12
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[ogg vorbis - 9.0MB] - 05 – V.i – Literature: Medicine. Moreau – 00:13:20
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[ogg vorbis - 7.3MB] - 06 – V.ii – Literature: Medicine. Moreau, cont. – 00:10:11
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[ogg vorbis - 5.6MB] - 07 – V.iii – Literature: Medicine. Tarnowsky – 00:10:32
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[ogg vorbis - 5.8MB] - 08 – V.iv – Literature: Medicine. Krafft-Ebing – 00:19:26
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[ogg vorbis - 10.7MB] - 09 – V.v – Literature: Medicine. Krafft-Ebing, cont. – 00:15:52
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[ogg vorbis - 8.8MB] - 10 – V.vi – Literature: Medicine. Lombroso – 00:15:47
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[ogg vorbis - 8.7MB] - 11 – V.vii – Literature: Medicine. Note to the Foregoing Section – 00:16:14
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[ogg vorbis - 8.8MB] - 12 – VI – Literature: Historical, Anthropological – 00:17:57
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[ogg vorbis - 9.9MB] - 13 – VII.i – Literature: Polemical. Ulrichs – 00:19:19
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[ogg vorbis - 10.6MB] - 14 – VII.ii – Literature: Polemical. Ulrichs, cont. – 00:12:46
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[ogg vorbis - 7.0MB] - 15 – VII.iii – Literature: Polemical. Ulrichs, cont. – 00:10:35
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[ogg vorbis - 5.8MB] - 16 – VII.iv – Literature: Polemical. Ulrichs, concluded. – 00:16:00
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[ogg vorbis - 8.8MB] - 17 – VII, v – Literature: Polemical – 00:13:06
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[ogg vorbis - 7.2MB] - 18 – VIII.i – Literature: Idealistic. Walt Whitman – 00:11:14
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[ogg vorbis - 6.1MB] - 19 – VIII, ii – Literature: Idealistic. Walt Whitman, concluded. – 00:13:23
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[ogg vorbis - 7.3MB] - 20 – IX – Epilogue – 00:10:25
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[ogg vorbis - 5.7MB] - 21 – X – Suggestions on the Subject of Sexual Inversion in Relation to Law and Education – 00:09:32
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Cataloged on July 01, 2011
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