A Moral Defense of Prostitution

Offering a careful and thorough critique of the many—twenty, to be exact—arguments for prostitution's immorality, Lovering leaves no claim unchallenged. Lovering demonstrates convincingly, on both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist grounds, that there is nothing immoral about prostitution between consenting adults.

"The enjoyment of sexual pleasure can contribute greatly to a person’s happiness. Prostitution, in providing opportunities for such pleasure, should therefore be viewed as an admirable profession that makes a very welcome contribution to human society. Instead, prostitutes are looked down upon, and prostitution is illegal in many countries and most of the United States. Why is this the case? The reason is that many people are in the grip of unsound arguments that lead them to think that prostitution is morally wrong. Rob Lovering’s book is a welcome correction. Not only is it the first book to survey the wide variety of arguments for the immorality of prostitution, it also sets out—in an admirably clear and accurate fashion—each of the important arguments that have been offered for this view, and then shows convincingly in each case why the argument in question is unsound."

—Michael Tooley, President (1983-84), The Australasian Association of Philosophy and President (2010-11), The American Philosophical Association - Pacific Division

"The view that prostitution is immoral is taken for granted by most people worldwide. Scholars, policy makers, and the media rarely question prostitution's moral status, even if they support attempts to legalize it. In his unique book, Rob Lovering offers a tour-de-force analysis of this question. By systematically critiquing the conventional arguments and assumptions, he provides nothing short of a paradigm shift in how we conceptualize prostitution. A ground-breaking book that will help to destigmatize sex work."
—Ronald Weitzer, author of Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry (1999)

Is prostitution immoral? In this book, Rob Lovering argues that it is not. Offering a careful and thorough critique of the many—twenty, to be exact—arguments for prostitution's immorality, Lovering leaves no claim unchallenged. Drawing on the relevant literature along with his own creative thinking, Lovering offers a clear and reasoned moral defense of the world's oldest profession. Lovering demonstrates convincingly, on both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist grounds, that there is nothing immoral about prostitution between consenting adults. The legal implications of this view are also brought to bear on the current discourse surrounding this controversial topic.
Rob Lovering is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island, USA. He is the author of God and Evidence: Problems for Theistic Philosophers (2013) and A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug Use (2015).