LUST is good for you. Oxford University is publishing a re-evaluation of the seven deadly sins which declares that sexual desire is a life-affirming virtue and should no longer be considered a vice.

The call for a new appreciation of lust comes from Professor Simon Blackburn, one of the country??s most highly regarded philosophers, who argues that man??s basic urges have been wrongly condemned for centuries. Sex, he says, is fun and should be ??reclaimed for humanity??.

Blackburn??s campaign for a more relaxed attitude to lust is part of a four-year Oxford University Press (OUP) publishing project to determine whether the principle of the seven deadly sins (lust, anger, gluttony, sloth, pride, greed and envy) has any relevance in the 21st century. The list was drawn up by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century.

Blackburn, of Trinity College, Cambridge, spent three months thinking about lust before deciding to back its rehabilitation. Defining it as ??the enthusiastic desire for sexual activity and its pleasures for its own sake??, Blackburn says the aim of his work is to ??rescue?? lust and place it alongside the virtues. It should not, he says, be criticised just because it can get out of hand, adding that thirst is not criticised because it can lead to drunkenness.

He blames ??old men of the deserts?? ?? such as the leading Christian thinkers St Augustine, St Jerome and St Thomas Aquinas ?? for creating a moral climate in which many people feel guilty for wanting sex.

Blackburn also points blame at the influential German philosopher Kant for his flawed analysis and role in denigrating lust, alongside Seneca, the morbid Roman whose motto was ??nothing for pleasure??.

??So the task I set myself is to lift it from the category of sin to that of virtue,?? he said. Blackburn claims that statements by David Hume, the 18th-century Scottish philosopher, and Thomas Hobbes, his 17th-century English predecessor, support his pro-lust view.

Pointing out that if reciprocated it leads to pleasure, Blackburn says that ??lust best flourishes when unencumbered by bad philosophy and ideology . . . which prevent its freedom of flow??.

His views were yesterday welcomed by Edwina Currie, the former Conservative minister who enjoyed an affair with John Major, the former prime minister. ??Oh, yes, I??m all in favour of lust. I??m not sure it??s a vice ?? it??s a natural part of healthy human life,?? she said.

Seven writers have been commissioned by OUP to analyse each of the deadly sins. Writing on sloth, Wendy Wasserstein, an American playwright, says it should be encouraged because of longer working hours and our increasingly busy lives.

Francine Prose, a scholar who has written about gluttony, believes that we should be more relaxed about what we eat. Elda Rotor, an editor at OUP, said: ??She talks about the joy of gluttony, about enjoying a great bottle of wine, about oysters. She says that when you have a meal you should enjoy it.??

However, greed is condemned by Phyllis Tickle, a writer on religion, who says that the anti-globalisation movement reflects a growing unease among some at the greed displayed by corporate fat cats.

Professor Robert Thurman, a Buddhist thinker, close friend of the Dalai Lama and father of the film star Uma Thurman, condemns anger as counterproductive. He believes that, following the Buddhist teaching, it should be ??channelled into positive energy?? through which good might come.

Michael Eric Dyson, the African-American writer, found that pride in one??s roots is acceptable, but not if it involves being prejudiced against those from other backgrounds.

Men and women feel envy in different ways, according to Joseph Epstein, the scholar. ??The envy of women strikes me as usually personal and particular, while that of men can often be wilder and zanier, often built on fantasy and overestimation of the self,?? he says. Celebrity culture has made people more envious by focusing attention on the rich and successful, he adds.

The value of avoiding the seven deadly sins was, however, defended by Roger Scruton, the philosopher, who said that doing so could lead to a more pleasant society.

Scruton, who has not contributed to the OUP series, said: ??Gluttony pushes you in a direction you regret, usually. The same with lust. They are all sins which, if you give way to them, take control of you and turn your character in such a direction that you??ve lost control. If you think of gluttony in relation to alcohol, that??s not just a destruction of the person whose life it is, but a threat to others, too. With sexual mores, absolute licence produces chaos.??

The Rev Thomas Weinandy, who teaches history and doctrine at Oxford University, said the seven deadly sins have stood the test of time well.

??We see new expressions of them,?? he said. ??For instance, a modern-day consequence of the vice of lust would be pornography on the internet.??

Blackburn prefers an optimistic outlook: ??The important thing is that generally anything that gives pleasure has a presumption in its favour. The question is how we control it.??

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