Exam #3 Study Guide – Ethical Choice
Introduction – Be able to summarize the
various positions listed and their main arguments.
Mappes
Kant’s end-in-itself formulation of the categorical imperative
Why undermining someone’s voluntary informed consent is using them in an immoral manner.
The two types of deception
Occurrent and disposition coercion, and coercive offers
The difference between an offer and a threat
How deception and each of the types of coercion undermine
voluntary informed consent.
Ericcson
Why our negative attitudes about prostitution are the problem rather than prostitution itself.
The sentimentalist charge and Ericcson’s two responses to it.
The paternalistic charge and Ericcson’s response.
The ineradicability of prostitution and the harms that
result from trying to outlaw it.
Punzo
Punzo’s critique of the liberal
position: Uncommitted sex leads to depersonalization. What distinguishes sex
from other activities.
Why a morality of aspiration is
preferable to merely avoiding harms.
Existential integrity as the ethical principle guiding sexual activity.
Punzo’s view on preceremonial
sex: Is he a conventionalist? Sex with love?
West
Feminist claims about the status of women in society.
Reasons why women consent to undesired sex.
Harms that may result from this.
The various senses in which homosexuality is supposed to be unnatural and Corvino’s claim that they are not morally relevant.
Homosexuality’s purported harms to individual
practictioners, children, and society and Corvino’s responses.
Knight
The various ways in which same-sex marriage undermines the institutions of marriage and family.
Are same-sex marriage and interracial marriage analogous?
Rauch
Why the purpose of marriage is not procreation or love, and why
it is consistent with same-sex couples.
Essay Topics
1. State your view on sexual morality in relation to love,
commitment, and marriage. Provide arguments to support your view and explain
why your view is preferable to the other main positions.
2. Pick one of the following normative theories (Kant’s
ethics, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, natural law theory) and use it to argue
for liberalism, conventionalism, and the sex with love position. Then explain
which of these arguments you think is the best and why.
3. Is same-sex marriage morally permissible? Is there a relevant difference between same-sex and heterosexual romantic relationships and parents? State your view and defend it vigorously with evidence and arguments.