The Definition of Pornography and Avoiding Normative Silliness: A Commentary Adjunct to Rea’s Definition

Many definitions of pornography implicitly involve begging the question concerning its moral value. One exception to this is Michael Rea’s 2001 definition. The present paper identifies some counter-intuitive consequences of this definition of pornography and seeks to amend it. The aim of the paper is to separate a definitional understanding of pornography from a normative understanding of pornography in order to lay the foundations for future, coherent moral thinking on the subject.