PHILOS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Hicklin Test
1 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Philosophy 1B03
Morality
Hicklin Test to determine or interpret obscene and indecent material
"to deprave or corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose
hands a publication of this sort may fall.” i.e. being naked on a non-nudist grounds
Criticisms of Hicklin Test
•too vague
•overly moralistic
•application too easily influenced by subjective and moral
•condemns many reputable works of art & literature
Criticisms of Hicklin test leads Federal government to revise CCC & introduce new explicit
definition of ‘obscenity’
— any publication a dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex and or
namely, crime, horror, cruelty, and violence shall be deemed to be obscene.
•Does the material actually unduly exploit sexual themes?
•Does this constitute as the standards of indecency that prevail within the community?
•Purpose of CSTT: To determine what amounts to “undue exploitation of sex, or of sex
and…” (Sec 163)
Towne Cinema (1985)
•Further developed CSTT
•Undue exploitation:
•Determined by measuring X against national CST
•Based on tolerance not taste
•Identity of CST determined by judge or jury
•CSTT not the only test of “undue exploitation”
Butler
-Standard of tolerance connected to harm
-Standard is not: Does the community tolerate this material?
-Standard is: Does this material go beyond risk of harm community is prepared to tolerate?
An attempt to blend CSTT with the Harm Test
Devlin’s Three Questions
1. Ought there to be a public morality, or are morals always a matter of private judgment?
2. If society has the right to pass [moral] judgment, does it also have the right to use the
weapon of law to enforce it?
3. If society may use the weapon of law to enforce moral judgment, may it use it in all or only
some cases; and if only in some, on what principles should it distinguish? (375-6)
!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
