ethics

Laws of nature

Universal laws of science understood by analysing the physical world

Descriptive laws

simply stating what is scientifically, factually the case

Natural law

• moral law of how human beings should behave

• understood by reflecting on human nature and rationally working out what leads to happiness

• canfindeternal law through our reason - marks us from animals.

Prescriptive laws

recommending a particular way of behaving: what one ought to do.

Eternal law

• God’s unchanging law remains the same for all people in all places. absolute and universal, part of God

• The ultimate source of moral goodness and thus law is God’s omnibenevolent nature, which created and ordered the universe with a divine plan - beyond our understanding. only have access to lesser laws that derive from the eternal law.

Divine law

how God reveals eternal law through divine revelation eg the Bible

Human law

• our response to these messages. Human law is the customs and practices of society. It is only proper law if it is in accordance with divine and natural law.

5 Primary purposes

• Aquinas thought purpose could be understood through examination of the natural world and the Bible - purposes for which God created man.

• 5 primary purposes in life:

  • Live (self preservation)

  • Reproduce

  • Learn

  • Worship God

  • Live in society

• Natural moral law says that God wants a relationship with all humans. So whether an action is right or wrong depends on whether it leads to this ultimate purpose

• the natural inclinations of our God-designed human nature, put into the form of ethical principles by human reason. Simply having reason allows a being to intuitively know these precepts. We are all born with the ability to know them.

secondary precepts

• rules about things we should/shouldn’t do because they uphold or fail to uphold primary precepts

• Continuation of species through reproduction-have sex, be married, no contraception, don't have abortions,

• Educate children and learn-become a teacher, stay in school

• Worship God-read and follow the bible, go to church, pray, obey God’s laws

• Live in and order society- follow the law, communicate and be compassionate

• every man has a specific, individual purpose that would fulfil the gifts given to them by God. The goal of fellowship with God is open to all and the main purpose of all. But other goals are open just to some.

• Conscientia is the ability of reason to apply he primary precepts to situations or types of actions

Natural moral law Bowie

• roots in ancient greek and roman world-argues that the Antigone breaks Creon’s - says the state can’t overrule the immortal laws of the gods

• Aristotle wrote that natural justice wasn’t always the same as the law

• Ancient Stoics-’logos’/rationality, nl as law of right reason

• aquinas believed nl was a moral code, purpose of nature by God ‘Law is nothing else than an ordination of reason for the common good’

• Aquinas believes nl evaluates actions and their motivations

Catechism of the Catholic church, nml

• ‘universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men’, expresses dignity/basis for rights and duties

• ‘permanent’ and ‘immutable’, ‘cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man’

• ‘indispensable moral foundation for building human community’, ‘basis for the civil law’

Interior and exterior acts

• Interior-intention

• Exterior-action

• A physical action is an exterior act because it occurs outside of our mind. Our intention; what we choose to do, is the interior act because it occurs inside our mind.

• A good exterior act without a good interior act does not glorify God because it is not done with the intention of fulfilling the God-given goal/telos of our nature(act of giving money to charity - superficial or good intentions)

telos, natural law

• Natural law ethics - human beings have a God-designed nature, including reason - intuitively knows certain things to be good or bad, inclining humans towards following God’s morality - telos, inclination towards our good end

• capable of choosing whether to follow God’s moral law or not.

• strength of telos-based ethics- empirical.

  Aristotle - everything has a nature which inclines it towards a certain goal which he and Aquinas called its telos. biological fact certain behaviours cause an organism to flourish. modern sciences rejection of final causation - bacon argues only material and efficient causation were valid scientifc concepts, telos unscientific

• Aquinas Christianised this concept. Christian God designed everything with a telos according to his omnibenevolent plan for creation.

• Human nature has the God given ability to reason which comes with the ability both to intuitively know primary moral precepts and to apply them to moral situations and actions. Following this ‘natural law’ is an essential element of living a moral life.

• idea of an ‘essence’ is unscientific

eudaimonia

• Like Aristotle, Aquinas thought eudaimonia can be achieved at the societal as well as the individual level. God has designed the telos of human beings so that a harmony of their individual interests can be achieved if they follow the natural law.

• A person or society which fails to orient itself towards the glory of God will not flourish, but degenerate. This doctrine energised much of the preoccupation of Catholics with the moral fabric of society and their opposition to changes they feared would lead to moral degeneration.

secularists argue divine law is primitive, comes from ancient human minds not god

js mill called the old testament barbarous, freud argued religious morality reflected ‘ignorant childhood days of the human race’

aquinas’ natural law ethics is outdated, rules more necessary in medieval society - eg sex within marriage to stop single parenthood

Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law … They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness

when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law … They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” (Romans 2:14-15)

Aquinas’ Summa Theologica

Moral acts take their character from what is intended, not from what is outside the intention, as this is accidental…

proportionality, Richard McCormick and Bernard Hoose

• more flexible proportionalism

• Like Aquinas, recognise importance of reflecting on human nature to reveal general moral principles e.g. do not lie, agree on primary precepts but not always binding

• Sometimes situation will demand putting NML aside for the greater proportionate good, even though this may inevitably entail committing non-moral evils

• only condition that matters - proportion of value to disvalue

• Hoose would agree with Fletcher’s example of killing a baby to save the lives of its family

• John Paul II argues that although consequences matter, proportionalism takes that too far when it claims that there are no intrinsically evil actions.

fletcher nml

Fletcher argues this shows there is not an innate God-given ability of reason to discover a natural law. He concludes that ethics must be based on faith, not reason

aquinas, natural theology and original sin

• human reason is capable of knowing God’s moral law - original sin destroyed original righteousness, meaning perfect rational self-control.

• did not destroy our reason itself and its accompanying telos inclining us towards the good.

• Only rational beings can sin, no sense to say that animals could sin.

• Original sin made us sinners, but human nature was not reduced to the level of animals. We still have the ability to reason.

• diverges from Augustine, oncupiscence can sometimes be natural to humans, in those cases where our passions are governed by our reason.

karl barth, nml

dangerous to rely on human reason to know god due to the fall, disagrees with telos

freud, fletcher and psychologists criticism of nml

vastly different moral beliefs - along cultural lines.

social conditioning causes our moral views, not a supposed natural law in human nature.

Hugo Grotius

• Natural law is independent of religion and defines things as good or bad through reason,

• nml should be derived from common sense and human instinctual ideas of right and wrong. to be universal - should originate from something inherent to humanity.

• responsible for natural law being applied internationally to states as a universal basis for a ‘just war’ tradition of ethics’

• Laws of nature are given to humans by God at the point of creation, belief in God not essential to nml, hold force even if there was no God

• more useful than Aquinas’ version as it applies regardless of belief in God or practice of religion; it is more universal.

John Finnis (b. 1940), nml

• Finnis’ version of Natural Law is based on the idea of ‘human flourishing’. ‘eudaimonia’

• Life, knowledge, play, work, aesthetic experience, friendship, practical reasonableness and religion/spirituality, are all needed for flourishing. 

• Seven basic human goods resonate with most people, the theory provides a clear set of guidelines that have the flexibility of a teleological theory but the certainty of a deontological theory.

• Someone deprived of leisure or play, for instance, will not flourish.

• These areas are supported by basic methodological requirements like a coherent plan of life, following one’s conscience and pursuit of goods.

• From these goods and requirements, we can derive the unchanging natural law.

• Often we can put these in the form of rights e.g. the right not to be tortured.

• Valerie Kerruish argues that Finnis’s approach to natural law

• is too abstract and sterile, it is difficult to understand how it relates to real people with real ethical problems,it is challenging to consider all seven basic goods and the nine requirements of practical reason

Absolutism

morals are fixed, unchanging views, everyone should follow

Relativism

morals are not fixed/absolute

Naturalism

Ethical theories that hold that morals are part of the natural world and can be recognised or observed

Intuitionism

Ethical theories that hold that moral knowledge is received in a different way from science and logic

Emotivism

Ethical theories that hold that moral statements are not statements of fact but are either beliefs or emotions.

FH Bradley

What he has to do depends on what his place is, what his function is, and that all comes from his station in the organism

• through realising one’s duties within the whole moral organism we realise who we are and what behaving ethically is. 

• Bradley recognises that any real society may have moral imperfections 

• makes a distinction between the good and bad self, bad self is an unrealizable parasite on the good, aim of morality is self-realisation. 

• morality is ultimately self-contradictory, depending on the evil it seeks to overcome. Realisation of the ideal self is thus unattainable through morality, but this is still possible in religion.

Philippa Foot

• life cycle consisting of self-maintenance and reproduction

• -> achieved differently in each species depending on how they feed themselves,develop and reproduce - norms can be decided - members can be judged on efficacy

• as rational animals, nature is normative over our reasoning not action. we have an understanding of what makes a good human life that informs our understanding of good human reasoning, and character. 

• “Lack of capacity to reproduce is a defect in a human being. But choice of childlessness and even celibacy is not thereby shown to be defective choice, because human good is not the same as plant or animal good.

Philippa Foot

[...] a moral judgement says something about the action of any individual to whom it applies: namely something about the reason that there is for him to do it or not do it, whether or not he recognised that, and whether or not, if he does recognise it, he also acts on it like he should.”

life cycle consisting of self-maintenance and reproduction

Self-maintenance and reproduction is achieved differently in each species depending on how they feed themselves,develop and reproduce.

From this, certain norms can be decided

By applying these norms, members can be judged to be effective or defective.

David Hume, morality/meta ethics

• when you pronounce any action or character to vicious, you mean nothing, but that from the constitution of your nature you have a feeling of sentiment of blame from the contemplation of it. Vice and virtue,...are not qualities in objects, but perceptions in the mind.” 

• people talking about morality moved from “is” to “ought” statements without any meaningful justification - from statements of fact

JL Mackie

• We can describe an institution or convention from the outside(people shouldn’t lie), or from the inside(i don't like it when people lie). rules depend on whether or not you have already accepted them, people can vary in how strictly they accept them

• Rules may be applied differently in different situations, rules are observable in society but are based on social conventions which may change over time. ‘There are no objective values’

“Naturalists, in short, resort to all sorts of supposed facts - sociological, psychological, scientific, even metaphysical or supernatural” -

Charles R Pigden

Aquinas’ Natural Moral Law

can be viewed as a type of naturalism.

• Aquinas is explicit about the role of God in morality -  use our reason to identify and observe ‘good’ and this was due to God in his role as Creator. 

GE Moore

• if I am asked, ‘How is good to be defined?’, my answer is that it cannot be defined, and that is all I have to say about it.” 

• intrinsically good things do exist, but cannot be analysed like other things 

• They can be observed, we don’t need to prove that they exist, we just need to be able to see them. Moral behaviour is whatever causes the most good to exist 

• disliked utilitarian approaches to ethics, doesn’t define himself as an intuitionist, but appreciated the role that intuition played in moral decision making

The naturalistic fallacy

• any attempt to define good in terms of anything else 

• Good is a simple notion in the same way as yellow - you know it when you see it

• Complicated notions are notions that can be broken down into different qualities - a human is complex, because they are a biped, a mammal, sentient, etc

• any attempt to define good as something other than itself is making it a complex notion, the concept of proof had no place in moral matters. 

• philosophers define good in terms of something else by defining it in terms of something that they can measure in the world - they are looking for something to use as ‘proof’ that an action is good, when they don’t need to. 

• Moore gives no proof to explain why good doesn’t need proof

HA Prichard

• It is impossible to find any arguments to determine what our moral obligations are

• We use reason and intuition to make moral decisions, reason to collect facts, intuition to determine what to do

• Ethical dilemmas happen when we have conflicting moral impulses, intuition allows us to determine which moral impulse should take priority. 

• there is no such thing as an intrinsically good action, or an objective moral duty

• some people are more ‘enlightened’ and may make better moral decisions

WD Ross

• people do have their own moral principles but these principles aren’t absolute.

• Goodness cannot be defined in natural terms, moral theories are lists of principles which we use to determine the best course of action.  

• prima facie duties, ‘at first appearance’ - actions we ought to do, unless there is an overriding obligation we need to follow instead. 

  • Promise keeping 

  • Reparation for harm done 

  • Gratitude 

  • Justice 

  • Beneficence 

  • Self-improvement 

  • Non-maleficence 

• people can become ‘more moral’ if they to reflect on previous experiences

The Vienna Circle

Verification principle: meaningful assertions fall into three categories: Analytic, mathematical, synthetic statements

AJ Ayer

• in saying that an action is right or wrong, I am not making any factual statement. I am merely expressing certain moral sentiments

• Statements are only meaningful if they can be verified, analytic or synthetic→ statements about morality can’t-  they aren’t meaningful

• societal convention a

CL Stevenson

• When someone makes a moral statement, they are expressing their own belief, to convince others to adopt the same

• social/persuasive element, they are not made in a vacuum and expect a response - moral discussions are about how to respond

Alasdair MacIndtyre

emotivists fail to recognise that there are other ways for statements to be meaningful

their importance or relevance to people gives them meaning

Stevenson fails to explain how moral attitudes develop /form, creating a world where everyone is trying to manipulate others to their views

Principle of synderesis, aquinas

• all precepts have to follow: seek good and avoid evil

• Vincible ignorance

lack of knowledge for which a person can be held responsible, they cannot say they didn’t know what they were doing

• Invincible ignorance

lack of knowledge for which a person cannot be held responsible;  acting morally to the best of their knowledge, God will not hold a person morally responsible

aquinas, conscience

• Conscience- when we apply ratio to synderesis and apply that knowledge to a moral situation. ability given by god

• did not consider conscience to be intuitive, a “rational power, since it is not found in brute animals”, we need to engage with it

• conscience is an act. ‘Conscience is said to witness behaviour, to bind us to action or to incite us… but also to accuse, rebuke or torment us’ ‘what should or should not be done’

• The level of blame for an immoral act depends on the level of ignorance

• people should always follow their consciences, but that didn’t mean that one’s conscience was always correct.

• Aquinas(following Aristotle) treated conscience as practical reason, prudence, which enables us to work out what we ought to do, and which enables us to look back on previous actions.

aristotle conscience

When we think of the things that are done from fear of greater evils or for some noble reason, it may be debated whether such actions are involuntary or voluntary…in the abstract are perhaps involuntary because no one who choose any such act in itself.”

the catechism, conscience

• Conscience is man’s most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with god whose voice echoes on his depths

• Conscience is a judgement of reason

• For the man who has committed evil, the verdict of his conscience remains a pledge of conversion and of hope

• Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgement in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgement that departs from them

• Conscience can remain in ignorance or make erroneous judgements. Such ignorance and errors are not always free of guilt

listening to the conscience

• Ww2 conscientious objectors. King delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence".He spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam. William Alfred Eddy - went against his conscience in his work for the CIA, army etc, did not believe God would forgive him

Freud - conscience

• Id- unconscious animalistic desires

• Superego, stores the values adopted from authority figures during childhood, source of moral feelings lessons are internalised by the super-ego, can prompt feelings of guilt and self-loathing - mistaken for ‘conscience’

• conscience is neither intuitive nor rationalist. a pre-rational function of the unconscious mind, a construct of the mind, responding to an externally imposed authority by internalising the disapproval of others.

• The ego- conscious decision making, mediates between and super-ego

• when the id wants something, the superego evaluates whether it is ‘acceptable’; if not it may then be repressed→ psychological problems. 

• Moral culpability - If our behaviours are the result of a battle within our subconscious, influenced by psychological trauma, can we hold anyone responsible for their ‘bad’ actions? 

criticisms of freud, conscience

• Karl Popper criticised Freud’s theory for being ‘unfalsifiable’, Freud could not identify what he would accept as evidence against his own theory.

• Freud based his theories on unscientific data - small sample size of patients, a poor cross-section of society (mostly just young women from very wealthy european families) and he didn’t follow any of the usual scientific practices. 

Piaget, conscience

 

• Before the age of 11 children have heteronomous morality- associate actions as bad because of authority figures,enforced by the expectation of punishment or reward. 

• autonomous morality develops, begin to have abstract cognitive moral beliefs, draws on social norms and consequences, but it is autonomous but we now have the cognitive ability to think through the consequences ourselves. 

augustine, conscience

• conscience as the voice of God, informing us what is right and wrong, all goodness comes from God

Cardinal Newman, conscience

•  our nature means we have a conscience, a voice/messenger from God, telling us what to do

• because we feel ashamed and are frightened when we go against what our conscience tells us, there must be One we feel responsible to and whom we fear. 

Butler

• humans differ from animals in our capacity to reflect on our actions,→ God-given.

• process of intuitive judgement against conflicting desires, rather than a rational reflection.

• we are required to make our own judgement but we don’t need to consult the Conscience does it “magisterially exerts itself” , has the final say in moral decisions.

• Butler preached that God placed conscience within us to be “our proper governor,”

• considered the disobeying of conscience to be worse than the action which you disobeyed conscience in order to do, deviation from man’s true nature. disobeying it is akin to disobeying God,

fromm, conscience

• Originally, considered the conscience authoritarian, derived from a fear of displeasing authority, which led to guilt, causing a greater submission to authority, fear leads to blind thinking

• Nazi’s method of manipulating conscience during their years in power.

• later idea - humanitarian conscience, asserted we all have the ability to judge and evaluate our behaviour and ourselves as people, making us our own authority figures

• authoritarian conscience to have authority for no reason than because it came from an authority

• should have authority over us as it can lead to wrong actions as well as good ones, depending on the authority figure’s demands

‘The spark of conscience’ is the power to distinguish between good and evil.

St Jerome

Conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.” 

• Martin Luther King Jr

Church teachings of marriage and divorce

 jesus said to them… “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

• But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
  - Matthew 5:31-32

• Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord - ephesians

the catechism, marriage

•  - 1660 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love

• 1664 Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage.

• -> no remarriage

Marriage in the Anglican Church

 In 2005 the Bishops stated the Church of England’s position : When we marry, we commit the procreative power of our own sex to an exclusive relation with a life-partner of the opposite sex

sacrament or covenant

• Catholics and some traditional Anglicans view marriage as a sacrament -  inward spiritual changes -  God joining the two people together for all time. indissoluble, divorce isnt possible - annulment is possible if one person didnt consent

• in some protestant churches, marriage is a covenant, no spiritual change, divorce is possible

…agree that people who want children ought to get married

55%

one in two children in single parent families live in poverty, compared with one in four children in two-parent families

Save The Children

no fault divorce, 2022

• You can get divorced in England or Wales if all of the following are true:

• you’ve been married for over a year

• your relationship has permanently broken down

• your marriage is legally recognised in the UK (including same-sex marriage)

opposition to no fault divorce

• Edward Leigh  -  in Canada introduction of no-fault divorce 1968,  “a sixfold increase in just two years”

• study in the US -  75% of low-income divorced women with children had not been poor when they were married

• Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy “increasing the divorce rate meant increasing numbers of disadvantaged children.” 

• UK, a 2009 review by Department for Children, Schools, and Families, child not growing up in a two-parent family household more likely to experience a number of problems

Coalition for Marriage, no fault divorce

• loss of 10,000 marriages a year

• Reduce the status of marriage, can be dissolved at minimal notice, no expectation of permanence. 

• Punish the spouse faithful to their marriage vows - the state terminating their marriage, dividing their family, splitting their assets and removing them from their home

• Put the most vulnerable at risk, removing protectionsfor those who become disabled or suffer a financial setback

Secular society’s views on marriage/divorce

• 63% of British adults feels there is no moral problem with divorce 

• universal consent argument, if many believe…

“‘Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life between a man and woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate ‘trial marriages’.”

- Catechism of the Catholic Church

secular views cohabitation

• 81% think it is all right for a couple to live together without being married,

• There are no laws prohibiting cohabitation - and there never have been

anglican church cohabitation

• “supports cohabitation as a step towards commitment

Breccan F. Thies, study on cohabitation

Couples who lived together before marriage were 48% more likely to divorce than couples who moved in together after being engaged or married

Legitimacy of children

• Being illegitimate does not officially deny someone access to Catholic baptism or other sacraments, but many priests and parishes imply differently. 

• The Anglican Church permits the baptism of illegitimate children.

catechism, adultery

• Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. The sixth commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely. 

Anglican Church, adultery

• a divorced person who cheated on their previous spouse should not be considered for remarriage in the Church. 

• the current King of England and Head of the Anglican Church admitted to cheating on his first wife; his second marriage was a civil ceremony but it was blessed by the Church. 

Same-sex marriage introduced in England, Wales and Scotland

2014

• 67% think a sexual relationship between two people of the same sex is never wrong,

• 2023

section 28

• 1988 - local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality, 2003 - Section 28 is repealed

wolfenden report 1957

•  the Government set up committee to consider legality of homosexuality - report recommended no longer criminal offence, supported by archbishop of canterbury, fisher

Current statutory guidance for rse in schools

• Schools must ensure that they comply with the relevant provisions of the Equality Act 2010, , under which sexual orientation and gender reassignment are amongst the protected characteristics.

• At the point at which schools consider it appropriate to teach their pupils about LGBT

UK Law and Conversion Therapy

• In 2018, the UK government announced that it would begin work on banning conversion therapy for same-sex attraction

• Labour Government included their intention to ban conversion therapy in the King’s Speech. 

• More than half of those who had received the therapy said it had been conducted by a faith group

christianity homosexuality

• Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Leviticus 18:22

catholicism, homosexuality

• 140 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."

• 2358 Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil God's will in their lives 

• 2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. 

Pope Francis, homosexuality

• In 2013, Pope Francis publicly said, “Who am I to judge?” when asked about gay Catholics working for or in the Church

• Church should be encouraging countries to decriminalise homosexuality, “a sin, but not a crime”

anglican church, homosexuality

• supported attempts to decriminalise homosexuality but opposed legalisation fo same sex marriage, considers conversion therapy wrong

ed shaw, homosexuality

•  The Bible is clear that marriage is for heterosexual relationships only, marriage is the only acceptable avenue for physical relationships, being attracted to people of the same gender is not a sin, but acting on that attraction would be

Act Utilitarianism, sexual ethics

•  If a sexual act, whether it is homosexual or pre/extra marital sex, maximised pleasure then it would be good to do/allow them

mill sexual ethics

• making something illegal due to religious morality must be rejected - foundation of religious persecution. Harm principle - people free to do what they like unless it harms others.

• Disagreed with appeal to the disgust of the masses - humans have tendency to encroach on freedom of individual - appeal to disgust of majority to justify it, a persons actions in their private life harming society is the price to pay for freedom

devlin sexual ethics

•  society has the right to protect itself; the law is meant to guard against threats, cannot survive without moral standards imposed.

• A society is ‘held by the invisible bonds of common thought’. If the feelings of an average person towards homosexuality are of ‘intolerance’- potential danger-> law. private and public spheres influence each other too greatly for Mill’s liberalism, majority has a right to defend from change it opposes.

• The environment in which people live is affected by the behaviours that people engage with in their private life → implies the traditional family is a public good.

aquinas, sexual ethics

 telos of human life is achieving ultimate happiness by glorifying God + following nml, going against this is bad for our well being →sex outside marriage as detrimental to happiness. primary precepts are threatened by sexual immorality, children cam only be truly provided for by married parents – pre/extra marital sex is wrong. homosexuality as unnatural - divergence from natural mode of sex.

objections to aquinas, sexual ethics

•  in medieval history, society was more chaotic, needed strict ethical principles to keep society together.

• sex usually led to children, without married parents→ underprovided for, useful to restrict sexual behaviour to marriage, single motherhood was economically fatal .

• useful to require having lots of children, most children died. all of these socio-economic conditions have changed.

• contraception disconnects sex from pregnancy, society has more resources to help single parents→ the primary precepts are no longer useful

• Christopher Hitchens,  rejects the arguments of Augustine,separation of sinner from sin

• absurd in the case of homosexuality- homosexual actions come from nature, not condemned by the Church for what they do but for what they are

• Church has no moral standing to criticise sexual behaviour because of its complicity in the paedophile priest scandal. 

fletcher, sexual ethics

•  church's teachings about sex and homosexuality were dated, only moral issues about sexuality are those of discrimination. doesn’t think the Bible is the perfect word of God. ideological ethical debates about sexuality as absolutist, refused to speak of good, evil, right and wrong in response to them. only public actions that impact the personal freedom of others should be determined by law.

• laws about sexuality should be restricted by: the age of consent; infringement of public decency; acts involving assault, violence, duress or fraud.

• Views about sexual relationships are private and not ‘social or public interest’/ The principle of agape supports any relationship unless it contravene legal rights of personal freedom; and does not offend public decency. critical of legalism – up to the individual person to decide in a moral situation what would have the loving outcome. sexual behaviour should not be subject to public norms and legislation – only to Agape.

kantian deontology, sex

•  idea of universality doesn't work when considering sexual ethics

• second formulation of the categorical imperative - thinks that sex which is not within a marriage for the purpose of procreation involves each person using the other as a mere means to their own gratification. objectification – treating them as a mere means.

• Homosexuality is an “unmentionable vice”. An illegitimate child is born outside the law and its protection “ can therefore also ignore its annihilation”

Hume, objections to kant, sexual ethics

• moral judgements being motivating means they must involve desire, why would we care that we should do what we should do unless we had a desire to do what we should do? we are the sort of being which requires desire in order to be motivated to do actions-  Kant’s ideal of the good will is an impossible ideal. “reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions”

Milton Friedman 1974

‘to make as much money for their shareholders as possible’ is the only responsibility of a business.

Milton Friedman quotes

• business men who believe that ‘business has a ‘social conscience’ are ‘preaching pure and unadulterated socialism’

• ‘If a corporate executive spends money to reduce pollution, or loses money due to social issues ‘his actions lower the wages of some employees, he is spending their money’