Canadian philosopher George Grant's claims that technological mastery, especially as it is founded on a degeneracy of the will, finds its starting point in Augustinian anthropology. This essay explores the Grantian critique and takes Augustine's account of sexuality as the point of focus, since some form of domination and instrumentality is arguably a necessary element of the Augustinian perspective on sexuality. Though an inconsistency is found in Augustine's language of "use" which gives some traction to the charge of mastery, his own account is considered as a potential remedy to the very problem that Grant wants to attribute to Augustinian Christianity.
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