PHM-3020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Sex Organ, Sexual Objectification
Document Summary
In thomas mappes" theory of sexual morality, only weak contextual constraints are required. The giving of free and informed consent by the persons involved in a sexual encounter is both necessary and sufficient for the morality of sexual activity, that is, for making permissible the sexual use of one person by another. Consent is not sufficient for the morality of sexual acts simpliciter, because even though a sexual act might be morally permissible qua sexual act, it still might be, for example, adulterous. Indeed, thin externalism, defined as making consent both necessary and sufficient, must also be minimalist. In principle, the acts engaged in need not even produce (mutual) sexual pleasure for the persons, an implication different from goldman"s internalism. Mappes, while developing his kantian sexual ethics, begins by repeating a point made frequently about such ethics: According to a fundamental kantian principle, it is morally wrong for a to use b merely as a means (to achieve a"s ends).
