Overview of unit on sexual ethics 

New Vocabulary:   ESSENCE  -VS- ACCIDENT 

  An ESSENCE is a feature of something that is the same everywhere and always.

            The essence of water is that its chemical composition is H2O

  An ACCIDENT is something that is sometimes present, and sometimes not.

It is an “accident” (in this special sense of the term) that some water is rain, some is ice, etc.

Many social arrangements are accidents. ETHICAL RELATIVISTS say that all of the things we use in making moral decisions are accidents. They say that there are no essential features of actions that make them moral or immoral. They conclude that moral evaluation is based on nothing but social norms, which change (and which are cultural accidents).

ESSENTIAL PURPOSE (also known as FINALITY)

In some cases, the essence of an activity is its fundamental purpose.

• For example, learning is the essential purpose or finality of attending college.
  Majoring in finance, or partying on weekends, are accidental features.

• For example, a murder is an action that has, as its basic purpose, the killing of someone.
  The use of a gun or knife or baseball bat is an accidental feature of murdering someone.

• For example, hunting is an activity that has, as its basic purpose, the killing of animals.
  Our practice of making hunters wear orange is an accidental feature of hunting.

MORAL DEBATES ABOUT SEXUAL ACTIVITY FOCUS ON THIS ISSUE:

Does sexual activity have any essential purpose or purposes that make it morally good?

All of the four assigned readings about sex in this course think that sexual activity does have an essential purpose. The Vatican, Bradshaw, and Schulman are in strong agreement about what this essence is. Although Corvino is defending sex between consenting homosexuals, he also thinks that sexual activity does have an essential purpose.

THE VATICAN (page 263)

Sex has a dual finality, and to be moral, sexual activity must allow for the fulfillment of both. The two purposes are (1) procreation and (2) mutual self-giving.

Sexual activity is wrong if it cannot simultaneously advance both. (However, if failure to procreate is an accidental feature of the activity –for example, the woman is sterile but not through her own choice—then failure to procreate does not make the sex immoral, provided there is genuine mutual self-giving.) Homosexual sex is essentially, not accidentally, incapable of procreation, so it is wrong.

CORVINO (page 276)

Page 275 makes it clear that Corvino has a utilitarian view, and evaluates social rules for relationships on utilitarian grounds.

BRADSHAW (pages 280-81)

Sex is a consummation, integrating three things: physical activity, commitment (to each other & to any children) reflecting "human existence," & community responsibility for entering relationships which are at the "root" of human society.

Bradshaw's thought experiment (page 282): Would consenting sex with an intelligent, "talking animal" be moral? No, because the physical act does not integrate human commitment. It consummates nothing.

Rape, sex with children, etc.,  are wrong because they do not "integrate" genuine human commitment. Homosexual activity is wrong for the same reason. 

 SCHULMAN (pages 290-91)    Essence of marriage as main issue

Marriage is a social sanction of the essence of sex. Sex is essentially about procreation, and with humans, and marriage is essentially a way to protect women in this relationship, providing a secure environment in which to have sex and raise children. A homosexual "marriage" arrangement does not have the finality required for genuine marriage. It merely "apes the marriage bond" and is "profoundly anti-female." 

Despite strong reasons in favor of homosexual marriage (improved social cohesion, fairer distribution of the legal benefits we attach to marriage), these are accidental features (i.e., they are not essential), and cannot be our reasons to endorse a "travesty of marriage."