Sex in Theory

This volume explores the major moral theories and their distinctive approaches and controversial implications regarding sex. This volume shows that the relative silence is important, for all the major moral theories appear to have controversial implications about the morality and value of sex. “Some of our considered moral judgments about the wrongness of various sorts of (consensual) sex are absolutely nonnegotiable. Yet it proves strikingly difficult to accommodate these judgments in anything other than an old-school natural law account of morality. Brian Besong ingeniously marshals these theses to construct a novel argument for an ancient ethics and to lay down a bracing challenge to complacent moral theorists.” — Mark C. Murphy, McDevitt Professor of Religious Philosophy, Georgetown University, USA, and author of Natural Law and Practical Rationality “In Sex in Theory, Besong demonstrates that even basic sexual prohibitions cannot hold in moral theories guided by utilitarianism, social contract, Kantianism, virtue ethics, and the new natural law. He persuasively defends classical natural law as the answer. Among scholars who think that the natural law’s restrictions on sexual expression fail to serve the good of individuals, families, and societies, this book will be targeted for refutation. But moral theologians today urgently need to grasp its reasoning. Its correspondence with core biblical teaching should serve as a wake-up call to the discipline of moral theology.” — Matthew Levering, James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary, USA This volume explores the major moral theories and their distinctive approaches and controversial implications regarding sex. Despite being a commonplace human activity, contemporary discussions of the norms regarding sex—particularly those that connect with the major moral theories—are relatively rare. This volume shows that the relative silence is important, for all the major moral theories appear to have controversial implications about the morality and value of sex. Consequently, either widespread Western assumptions about sex are mistaken or else the major moral theories have serious problems when it comes to the ethics of the bedroom. Adopting a metaethical Mooreanism about our sexual intuitions offers a potential compromise, such that some of the more novel and controversial Western intuitions are abandoned with resulting room for at least one moral theory to remain viable. Brian Besong is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saint Francis University, USA.