Sexual Ethics Essay Flashcards
what is essay 1 ?
Are secular views on sexual ethics superior to traditional religious views?
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Secular - not related to religion,
Traditional - from Bible, Conservative Christians - stricter views
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Augustine,
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traiditonal
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Conservative Christians - Biblical teachings & traditional theologians.
Augustine - Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were suddenly aware of their nakedness. He claims that we should feel shame over having lust because it is beyond our control is the result of our fallen state. He says this is universal - all people cover up genitals and sex is done in private , which suggests shame is still associated with it.
Natural Law- Traditional Conservative Christian view that is absolutist. Society must follow primary and secondary precepts in order to flourish.
Primary Precepts - Educating the young, Worshipping God, Living in Society, Reproduction, Preservation of Life.
Homosexuality - they believe is immoral. In 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy, St Paul condemns “sodomites” as unrighteous and sinners
“If a man lies with a man as he does with a woman, both have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death, their blood is upon them”.Leviticus 20:13.
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- Conservative secularists:the traditions regarding sexual ethics are useful for our society and so we should maintain them. Kantian ethics can be interpreted as an example of this.
Freud himself was quite conservative regarding sex in many ways, but nonetheless he was very influential on secular liberal views on sex. He thought that traditional Christian attitudes towards sex resulted in a feeling of shame about sexual desire which led to unhealthy repression and mental illness.
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Secular society is oversexualised.
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Liberal Christians - the bible is not the literal word of God so we need to update Christian ethics for modern. times. Fletcher’s situation ethics is an example of this. - Still TRADITIONAL CHRISTIAN
Extra - marital sex =
The message of the Bible seems to be that humans have temptation to have sex. We are born with original sin and this causes us to desire all sorts of sinful action, including sinful sexual action.
“Each of you must learn to control his own body, as something holy and held in honour,not yielding to the promptings of passion, as the heathen do in their ignorance of God.”1 Thessalonians 4.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery”(10 commandments)
“everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart”– Matthew 5:28
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Liberal secularists:the traditions regarding sexual ethics might have been useful in the past but are increasingly outdated and harmful. Utilitarianism is an example of this
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Liberal Christians can reject conservative views of sexual ethics by arguing that the Bible is not the perfect word of God but is instead just a product of the human mind.
what is essay 2 ?
How useful is natural law in dealing with issues in sexual ethics
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Natural Law = Deontological theory that is based on behaviour that fits with given laws or moral rules that exist independently of human societies and systems.
Developed by Thomas Aquinas.
what scholars essay 2 ?
Thomas Aquinas
whats ur view essay 2
its useful
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HOMEOSEXUALITY
It is unethical. No life can be created through the union of two people of the same sex.
Natural Law is focused on following God’s commands, as written in the Bible, but also maintaining our telos.
Natural Law is against homosexuality.
Goes against primary precept of reproduction as a homosexual couple cannot reproduce.
Humanae Vitae - Pope Paul VI - teachings of Natural Law as their source for sexual ethics are underlined. that all men are called to natural observation of sex. It says homosexuality is ‘intrinsically disordered’ as it cannot result in reproduction, but it does concede that such desires are from a natural place.
Sexual pleasure shouldn’t be the main aim of sexual intercourse. Its considered as an apparent good not a real good - so it is not the point or function of sex so reproduction is the main point.
Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) argued that “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder
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Other methods of conception are available such as IVF and surrogacy, so still contribute to society as Aquinas would have wanted.
Stephen Fry - response to Ratzinger - Religion is repressive of homosexual feelings - Don’t need the stigmatisation - making society not function well - not making it flourish as Aquinas wouldve wanted and what the purpose of Natural Law is - 6% of all teenage suicides are gay teenage suicides.
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Catechism also disagrees with homosexuality. It removes sex from the gift of life (reproduction).
Bible = ‘If a man lies with a males as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination , they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.’
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Extra Marital Sex - Only way for children to be provided for and looked after is by married parents, so Aquinas rejects pre/extra marital sex.
Bible quotes about Extra-marital sex.
Ten Commandments - ‘Do not commit adultery ‘ - so goes against divine law also !!
Primary precepts require all sexual activity must take place within marriage.
bit more lenient about it however
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Natural Law is outdated. In medieval society , it was much more chaotic and gruesome so absolutist rules like the primary precepts were needed to stop society from falling apart. Also infant mortality rate was higher, so more reproduction was needed because a lot of children died.
Socio-economic conditions have changed. - Contraception which detaches pregnancy from sex.
It is just no longer relevant
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Just because it is outdated doesn’t mean it is wrong. The whole point it is outdated, it is because it has worked, so still needs to be in place or society may return to being what it was before.
Natural Law ethics are available to everyone. because we were all born with the ability to know and apply the primary precepts. Possible to follow it even if you are not a Christian.
what is essay 3
How useful is situation ethics in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
intro essay 3
Situation Ethics - developed by Joseph Fletcher, must do the most loving thing in a situation.
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Joseph Fletcher, Barclay
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its useful
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Situation Ethics = Developed in a response to a cultural shift away from natural law and as a result of a big change in cultural attitudes away from a legalistic form of ethics.
Focused on agape = unconditional love demonstrated by Christ.
In terms of sexual ethics, depends what is the most loving thing to do. If the act is with consent then situation ethics would allow it, this would be the case for homosexuality and extra marital sex.
Personalism - independatn decision on what you believe is right. If both people are happy, then it is okay.
Relativism - Depends on the situation - ‘Love decisions to be made situationally not prescriptively’.
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Too subjective , hard to get a unanimous decision.
Homosexuality - parents may believe it is the most loving thing to do to try and convert them straight , however this will cause the individual involved lots of trauma.
The view of natural law is better - absolutist - homosexuality goes against primary precepts - Reproduction.
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Natural Law can lead to discrimination, condemnation and judgement so not good and doesn’t lead to a flourishing society.
love is subjective, but agape is not. Agape is much more specific than love, it means selfless love of your neighbour. Pressuring others into sex or disowning them for sexual behaviour is not selfless love of your neighbour
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Would allow extra-marital and pre-marital as long as both people are consenting and happy, as both of them do the action with love and therefore agape.
Example of woman in concentration camp - only way to leave was to fall pregnant, committed adultery with prison guard, and was reunited with family. This was the most loving thing to do in this situation as it regarded her safety and her being reunited with her family who needed her.
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Barclay - Humas are not perfectly loving and do dangerous things. If given the power to decide whether things are right or not, they may be selfish with what they choose, we only want best for ourselves or what makes us look the best.
People’s loving nature can be corrupted by power and selfishness.
Also SE ignores important commands in the Bible , Ten commandments ‘Do not commit adultery’.
It is clearly against extra/pre marital sex.
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Fletcher & Robinson argue that mankind has ‘come of age’, meaning become more civilised and educated. - People are in general more loving.
Fletcher doesn’t think the Bible is the perfect word of God that we can follow literally. The most we can get from it is general themes and Fletcher thinks that Agape is an important theme in the Bible
what is essay 4
How useful is Kantian ethics in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
intro essay 4
Immanuel Kant - moral duty of each individual. Three postualtes.
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Kant,
what is ur view essay 4
It is useful
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Homosexuality
No universible, so immoral. We are not all gay, and we all have different sexual feelings towards each other. So it wouldn’t work if we were all gay as there would be no natural reproduction. Problem for the continuation of the human race.
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Consent is also a central idea to Kantian Ethics - so if sex is consentual - no matter of what sexes it is between - surely it is moral ?
Situation ethics has a better approach to this than Kantian
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Situation Ethics = subjective.
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Pre/Extra Marital Sex.
Cannot be universalised - every single husband cheating on their wife would cause chaos within society = so not moral.
Duty is very important to Kant, so you have a duty to be faithful to your wife/husband, as you stated in your wedding vows, so sex outside of marriage is wrong.
Also pre-marital sex may be seen as promiscuous- so you could be using a person as a means to an end (the end being pleasure not for a genuine relationship), so is immoral. - Also links to masturbation.
The second formulation of the categorical imperative is important regarding sex for Kant. He thinks that sex which is not within a marriage for the purpose of procreation pretty much involves each person using the other as a mere means to their own gratification. This is a kind of objectification – treating someone as an object, which involves treating them as a mere means
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Kant thinks that marriage is a contractual agreement involving the granting of “lifelong possession of each other’s sexual attributes,”. The idea seems to be that if each person agrees to being used by the other, then both are respecting each other’s end and thus only treating them as a means, not amere means.
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Not all sex outside of a marriage is to do with using people, a couple may just not want to get married but love each other very deeply, Kant never married so may not understand this ?
Kant even suggests children born outside marriage could be killed or left to die:
“A child that comes into the world apart from marriage is born outside the law (for the law is marriage) and therefore outside the protection of the law. It has, as it were, stolen into the commonwealth (like contraband merchandise), so that the commonwealth can ignore its existence (since it rightly should not have come to exist in this way), and can therefore also ignore its annihilation”
what is essau 5
How useful is utilitarianism in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
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Utilitarianism = developed by Jeremy Bentham . Doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people
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jeremy bentham
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?
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Ethical theory which tells us that the best course of action is the one that will gain the highest level of happiness for the greatest number of people.
Act Utilitarianism =Jeremy Bentham - Relativist to individuals acts - Infamous example of it being able to justify horrific things such as Gang rape.
If a sexual act, whether it is homosexual or pre/extra marital sex, maximised pleasure compared to the other option of not doing or allowing them, then it would be good to do/allow them.
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Different types of utilitarianism with differing views about sexual ethics could make it very confusing to use.
Rule Utilitarianism - John Stuart Mill - Harm Principle - As long as the action causes greates good for greatest good without harming anyone, then it can be ethical.
Singers - Preference Utilitarianism = No problem with homosexuality. As long as it promotes the interests of those involved.
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In general , Utilitarianism works on the majority. So if the majority oppose homosexuality , then it is seen as immoral. However, if they don’t have an issue, and it creates happiness then it is seen as moral.
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If both people are happening with the situation and are both consenting, then it is moral because greatest number of people are happy.
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Negatives of Utilitarianism = Not everything should be based on happiness - society today believes strongly in principles of justice, righst and protection of minorities which are not reflected in utilitarianism - minority does not get there way and could cause conflict.other values are more important such as justice or developing virtues- so there shoudl at least be a mix
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easy to use and provides a clear, practical measure and tool for thinking about happiness
