Until the late 19th century, says Scruton (philosophy, Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Virginia) sexual desire was subsumed as a generally unmentioned aspect of erotic love, and since then it has been considered an animal aspect of humans, and so relegated to biology. He suggests that philosophy has more thoroughly avoided addressing it than can be explained by mere neglect. Among his topics are the individual object, sexual phenomena, love, sex and gender, and the politics of sex. First published by Wiedenfeld and Nicolson in Britain in 1986 and Phoenix in the US in 1994. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)