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CHAPTER 15 Sexual Morality
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Background and Facts about Sexual Morality
A. Views about Sexual Behavior
1. Conventional View
2. Liberal View
3. Moderate View
B. Campus Sexual Assault
II. Moral Theories and Sexual Morality
A. Natural Law Theory
B. The Kantian View
C. The Utilitarian View
III. Moral Arguments and Sexual Morality
A. Morally Significant Goals
B. “Plain Sex”
C. Homosexuality
1. Unnaturalness
2. A Misuse of Bodily Parts
1. The central question in the morality of sex is,
a. What arguments can be marshaled against the conventional view of sex?
b. Is sexual behavior detrimental to human evolution?
c. What kind of sexual behavior is morally permissible and under what circumstances?
d. Is society as a whole becoming more liberal or more conservative in views about sexual behavior?
2. The conventionalist and the liberal take opposing views on the moral permissibility of
a. marriage. c. homosexuality.
b. love. d. domestic life.
3. In a recent public opinion poll, ________ percent of respondents said they believe that it is
morally acceptable for a man and woman to have sex before marriage.
a. 90 c. 25
b. 66 d. 40
4. The notion that as long as basic moral standards are respected, any sexual activity engaged in
by informed, consenting adults is permissible is known as the ________ view.
a. hedonistic c. liberal
b. conventional d. moderate
5. Kissing someone without first obtaining consent is an example of
a. rape. c. both rape and sexual assault.
b. sexual assault. d. neither rape nor sexual assault.
6. Suppose a married couple openly engages in consensual extramarital sexual activity with other
people. According to Thomas Mappes’s Kantian view of sexuality, the sexual behavior of this
couple would be
a. permissible overall except for oral sex.
b. impermissible.
c. permissible.
d. permissible overall except for the use of contraception.
7. An unmarried man and woman have frequent sex and engage in activities that most of society
would label unconventional, unnatural, and deviant. Their sexual behavior results in the
greatest net good for all concerned. A utilitarian would therefore say that their sexual
activities are
a. permissible except for deviant sex.
b. permissible except for activities labeled unnatural.
c. impermissible.
d. permissible.
8. A 2008 study showed that teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as
likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence, and they are
significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do. If we
assume that the goal of such pledges is to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, what
would a utilitarian determine should be done?
a. These pledges should be discouraged.
b. These pledges should be encouraged.
c. It does not matter one way or the other whether the pledges continue.
d. These pledges are unnatural.
9. Alan Goldman says that the conventional view of sexuality is that sexual behavior must have
a morally significant goal, such as procreation. But he argues that
a. sex is directed towards goals but not toward conventional goals.
b. sex is not a means to some other goal.
c. sex should be directed toward communicating ideas or expressing love.
d. sex is a spiritual journey.
10. Alan Goldman and Igor Primoratz affirm that sexual behavior
a. cannot be immoral merely because it is sexual.
b. can never be immoral.
c. is always moral.
d. cannot be labeled.
11. Many who argue against homosexuality appeal to an idea that is central to natural law
theory—mainly that
a. human beings are at liberty to dispose of their anatomy and physiology as they see fit.
b. people are not obligated to stay as nature made them.
c. the way nature is tells us nothing about how we ought to be.
d. the way nature is tells us how humans ought to be.
12. Biologists report that homosexual behavior among nonhuman animals is
a. nonexistent. c. widespread.
b. extremely rare. d. found only in primates.
13. Many human activities are statistically out of the norm (such as skydiving and eating snails),
and for that reason they are sometimes deemed unnatural. From this fact it follows that
unnatural activities are
a. necessarily immoral. c. morally suspect.
b. departures from evolutionary change. d. not necessarily immoral.
14. One conventionalist argument asserts that homosexuality’s misuse of bodily parts leads to
a. unhappiness. c. dishonesty.
b. sin. d. disillusionment.
1. The moderate view says that sex is morally acceptable only between one man and one woman
who are married to each other by legal authority.
2. Research shows that sex before marriage is almost universal among Americans.
3. The terms “rape” and “sexual assault” are synonymous with one another and can be used interchangeably.
4. Moral questions surface about sexual assaults on college campuses having primarily to do
with (1) whether and how justice is served after a sexual assault occurs, and (2) whether
the requirement of consent is met in any kind of sexual encounter.
5. According to the Roman Catholic version of natural law theory, sexual activity inconsistent
with procreation is prohibited. An example of such forbidden behavior is frequent sex between
a man and a woman married to each other.
6. According to Alan Goldman, sexual desire is desire for contact with another person’s body
and for the pleasure that such contact produces.
7. Consider this argument: Sexual experiences express and affirm moral values, and the right
kind of sex expresses and affirms the right kind of values. This view is advocated by
conventionalists.
8. A utilitarian is likely to sanction many kinds of sexual activity provided that such activities
do not use people as a means to an end.
SHORT ANSWER
1. Many conventionalists favor censoring ________, which is defined as sexually explicit
images or text meant to cause sexual excitement or arousal.
2. The ________ view says that morally permissible sex does not require marriage, but it does
entail more than just the informed, freely given consent of the people involved, like an
emotional connection.
3. ________ is a term that refers to rape as well as nonpenetrative sexual acts such as
attempted rape and unwanted groping of sexual parts.
4. Some observers of the sexual assault phenomenon on campuses think that a lot of the blame
for it should be laid on campus ________ culture, as today’s college students are thought to
reject the notion of traditional dates, opting instead to pursue no-strings-attached sexual
encounters disconnected from the messiness of romantic commitments.
