Eroticism

Not to be confused with erotica.

Erotic redirects here. For the band see E-Rotic

Historically
Part of a series on Love

Courtly love
Religious love
Grades of Emotion
Free love
Erotic love
Platonic love
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See Also
Unrequited love
Celibacy
Sexuality
Asexuality
Sex
Saint Valentine's Day

Eroticism is an aesthetic focused on sexual desire, especially the feelings of anticipation of sexual activity. It is not only the state of arousal and anticipation, but also the attempt through whatever means of representation to incite those feelings.

The word "eroticism" is derived from the name of the Greek god of love, Eros. It is conceived as sensual love or the human sex drive (libido). Philosophers and theologians discern three kinds of love: eros, philia, and agape. Of the three, eros it considered the most egocentric, focusing on care for the self.

Ancient Greek philosophy’s overturning of mythology defines in many ways our understanding of the heightened aesthetic sense in eroticism and the question of sexuality. Eros was after all the primordial god of unhinged sexual desire in addition to homoeroticism. In the Platonic ordered system of ideal forms, eros corresponds to the subject's yearning for ideal beauty and finality. It is the harmonious unification not only between bodies, but between knowledge and pleasure. Eros takes an almost transcendent manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the objectival other. This corresponds to attaining orgasm in erotic love-making.

Yet an objection to eros and erotic representation (pornography) is that it fosters a subject/object relationship in which the object of desire is mere projection of the needs of desiring subject. Love as eros is considered more base than philia (friendship) or agape (self-sacrificing love). But erotic engagement paradoxically individuates and de-individuates the desirer.