Lecture 2

Question 1

what is Ethics

Answer 1

about the good (that is, what values and virtues we should cultivate) and about the right (that is, what our moral duties may be

Question 2

what is Morality—

Answer 2

reflection on the good and evil of human acts and the person who performs them

Question 3

what is Normatively—

Answer 3

concern for what people ought to value and what they ought to do

Question 4

what is Practical reason—

Answer 4

human capacity to resolve through reflection and deliberation the question of what to do

Question 5

what are the Normative Ethical Theories

Answer 5

Teleological
Virtue
Consequentialist
Deontological
Divine command
Natural law

Question 6

what is Teleological—

Answer 6

oriented toward a “good” end

Question 7

what is Virtue—

Answer 7

moral character

Question 8

what is Consequentialist—

Answer 8

the morality of an action is contingent on its outcome or result

Question 9

what is under Consequentialist

Answer 9

Utilitarianism—
egoism—
welfarism—

Question 10

what is Utilitarianism

Answer 10

best actions result in most happiness for greatest number of people

Question 11

what is egoism

Answer 11

self-interest

Question 12

what is welfarism

Answer 12

best actions increase economic well-being

Question 13

what is Deontological

Answer 13

moral decision-making is based on duties and obligations toward rights and entitlements of others; “the right” is prior to “the good”

Question 14

what is Divine command

Answer 14

moral goodness is related to wether God commands an action

Question 15

what Natural law

Answer 15

aptitude for virtuous action that is derived from rational nature

Question 16

who came up with Eudaimonism

Answer 16

Aristotle

Question 17

what is Eudaimonism

Answer 17

most people virtually agree… that living well and doing well are the same as being (eudaimōn)

Presumably it is also absurd to make the blessed person solitary. For no one would choose to have all (other) goods an yet be alone, since a human being is a political (animal), tending by nature to live together with others

Question 18

What is “ethics” about

Answer 18

both living well and hard cases

Question 19

what are the Levels of Questions for Moral Reflection

Answer 19

1. Descriptive questions— what are we/they doing?
2. Prescriptive/normative questions— what should we/they do?
3. Trajective questions— what will wee/they become?

Question 20

whaat were the main ideas about “Plain Sex” by Goldman

Answer 20

“sexual desire is desire for contact with another person’s body and for the pleasure which such contact produced; sexual activity is activity which tends to fulfill such desire in the agent”
critique of “means end” analysis (necessary external purposes)
-reproduction
-expression of love
-simple communication
“my account recognizes the satisfaction of desire and the pleasure this brings as the central psychological function of the sex act for the individual”

basically, sex is JUSt sex

Question 21

Is sex itself a moral category (according to goldman)

Answer 21

no, sex itself is not a moral category
conclusion about sexual morality:
no necessary connection between sex and morality
application of general rule complicated by particular preferences
pleasure is intrinsic but does not attach duty to sex
central principle of reciprocity

Question 22

what does golden say about perversion

Answer 22

separation of perversion from morality (statistical, not evaluative)
perversion speaks to abnormally
it is not necessarily immoral
“The principles which condemn (perverted) acts would condemn them equally if they were common and nonsexual”

Question 23

what do Zuckerman and Manning say about sex and religion

Answer 23

union of sex and religion (e.g. Kamasutra)
Conflict between sex and religion (e.g., concupiscence)
even most restrictive religions find some positive function in sex
judaism— sex is encouraged within marriage
hinduism— sacred literature full of eroticism
christianity— never been uniformly negative about sex
islam— sensual, erotic afterlife for men who obey God’s law
buddhism— some traditions bring enlightenment together with sexual ecstasy

Question 24

what does Judaism have about regulations on sex

Answer 24

bless sex between man and woman only

sexual touching restricted to avoid impurity

Question 25

how is gender regulated by sex in religion

Answer 25

Mormonism, Islam— polygamy (polygyny only)

hinduism— woman can be beaten if she refuses sex

Question 26

how is homosexuality regulated in religion

Answer 26

judaism, christianity and islam— biblical/moral condemnations
buddhism— neutrality, baed on celibacy
hinduism— ambiguous (a vice, but not condemned as Abrahamic faiths)
Baha’l— unnatural and immoral

Question 27

what is sex positive

Answer 27

sensual, erotic activity involving the consensual pursuit and/or activity of gratifying bodily pleasure is understood as natural and acceptable, even holy

Question 28

what is sex negative

Answer 28

sensual, erotic activity involving the consensual pursuit and/or activity of gratifying bodily pleasure is understood as unnatural and unacceptable, even unholy

Question 29

how are sex positive and negative related

Answer 29

More often than not, the relationship between a given religion and its approach to sex is somewhere in between sex positive and sex negative, ever fluctuating and changing, and always subject to debate and reinterpretation