PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Individualism, Heterosexuality
Document Summary
Parity thesis: homosexuality has the same moral status as heterosexuality. Difference thesis: there are morally relevant differences between homosexuality and heterosexuality. An argument for the parity thesis: homosexual acts between consenting adults harm no one, respecting persons privacy and choices in harmless sexual matters maximizes individual freedom. 3: discrimination against homosexuals diminishes individual freedom, toleration of homosexuality rather than discriminating against homosexuals is the preferable option in that maximizes individual liberty, the parity thesis is more plausible than the difference thesis. That may be true of private acts, but not public ones. That is because public acts involve more than the willing participants. Persons who have no desire to participate may have to participate given the public nature of the act. Public moral dilemma: when there is widespread moral disagreement on the status of x and the state has to make some decision about how to treat x, we have a public dilemma.
