PHL243H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Thought Experiment, Sex Worker, Zoophilia
LEC12: Intergenerational Sex
March, 31th 2010
Imaginative Resistance
! you cannot suspend your values when thinking about a thought experiment
! natural selection equip us to not suspend values because those who do suspend
values die sooner because their thought experiments do not impede them from
harm
! thoughts experiments are ways in which we experiment with the world without
the harm
! but b/c we drag our values into the experiment we limit our empathy response
The Yuk Factor
! Kass: “reason why we shouldn't have cloning, abortion etc. b/c thinking about it
makes you go Yuk”
! our moral judgement regarding sex started with emotions but they should include
more than emotion and include rational thought as well
Case Study: Zoophilia and Bestiality
! although Animals cannot verbally consent, but they may be able to consent
implicitly
! thus somehow when we drag in sex it makes everything different
Nurse vs. Sex Worker
! pain is bad, pleasure is good but
! absence of pleasure is merely not good while the absence of pain is good
! nurse's job is relieve pain = positive
! sex worker's job is to give pleasure = the positive does not outweight the bad
! Benetar argues, if you have sex intending to make a baby, then you are doing
something bad, because you are risking brining someone into evil
! ESSAY: we cannot grant the asymmetry of pain vs. pleasure b/c if we do we have
to accept Benetar's conclusion that it would be better to not have been borned at
all
Intergenerational Sex
! when you give child ice creame you assume they consent, but not when this is
applied to sex, (again something seems to be special about sex)
! when I say “I consent” this change the obligations and rights in the situation
! you can defeat apparent consent by:
! coercion and not by: bribes/promises
! in coercion if you refuse, your situation change but in promises if you refuse
your situation does not change
Why not? The power Imbalance
www.notesolution.com
Document Summary
you cannot suspend your values when thinking about a thought experiment. but b/c we drag our values into the experiment we limit our empathy response. kass: reason why we shouldn"t have cloning, abortion etc. b/c thinking about it makes you go yuk . our moral judgement regarding sex started with emotions but they should include more than emotion and include rational thought as well. although animals cannot verbally consent, but they may be able to consent implicitly thus somehow when we drag in sex it makes everything different. pain is bad, pleasure is good but. absence of pleasure is merely not good while the absence of pain is good. nurse"s job is relieve pain = positive. sex worker"s job is to give pleasure = the positive does not outweight the bad.
