Sexual morality: Is consent enough?
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 4 (3):201-218 (2001)
| Abstract | The liberal view that valid consent is sufficient for a sex act to be morally legitimate is challenged by three major philosophies of sex: the Catholic view of sex as ordained for procreation and properly confined to marriage, the romantic view of sex as bound up with love, and the radical feminist analysis of sex in our society as part and parcel of the domination of women by men. I take a critical look at all three, focusing on Mary Geach''s recent statement of the procreation view, Roger Scruton''s theory of sexual desire as naturally evolving into intimacy and love, and several radical feminist discussions of sex in sexist society which argue that the notion of consent is unhelpful and, indeed, irrelevant. I argue that none of these lines of argument is convincing, and that consent remains the touchstone of morally permissible sex – although, dmittedly, it may not be very helpful in discussing ideals of human sexuality. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesMal Leicester & Pam Cooke (2002). Rights Not Restrictions for Learning Disabled Adults: A Response to Spiecker and Steutel. Journal of Moral Education 31 (2):181-187.
Young-Hee Shim (2001). Feminism and the Discourse of Sexuality in Korea: Continuities and Changes. Human Studies 24 (1-2):133-148.
Patricia Marino (2008). The Ethics of Sexual Objectification: Autonomy and Consent. Inquiry 51 (4):345 – 364.
Matthew C. Altman (2010). Kant on Sex and Marriage: The Implications for the Same-Sex Marriage Debate. Kant-Studien 101 (3):309-330.
Ben Spiecker & Jan Steutel (1997). Paedophilia, Sexual Desire and Perversity. Journal of Moral Education 26 (3):331-342.
Jonathan Webber (2009). Sex. Philosophy 84 (2):233-250.
Ben Spiecker & Jan Steutel (2002). Sex Between People with "Mental Retardation": An Ethical Evaluation. Journal of Moral Education 31 (2):155-169.
Seiriol Morgan (2003). Dark Desires. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4):377-410.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads112 ( #4,835 of 548,984 )Recent downloads (6 months)7 ( #10,270 of 548,984 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
