Philosophy Notes

Philosophy Tuesday November 11 John Corvino – Homosexuality is morally acceptable * Why do people have sex? * Pleasure * Avenue for personal growth * Way to communicate * Lasting inter-personal fulfillment * Not usually engaged for procreation purposes * Not to say that it can’t be used for this * It’s not the only purpose behind sex * The book ‘Sex at Dawn; * Humans have sex roughly 1000 times for every child * Gorillas 10-15 per child * Gibbons < 10 per baby * So why do we have sex so much? * It fulfills social functions * Establishing trusting relationships in a social group * All of these reasons are the same reasons that homosexual couples engage in sex * Having a good reason to do something doesn’t mean that it’s moral * If we have good reasons not to do something that might overshadow any good reason for doing something * Arguments AGAINST homosexuality * Homosexuality is unnatural * What does unnatural mean? The term is very ambiguous term, it has multiple meanings (wearing clothes is unnatural, building cars etc) * What exactly is the objection? * Possible definitions for “unnatural” * Abnormal or Unusual * Does this give us justification that homosexual sex is wrong? * Having purple hair is unusual * Playing accordion is unusual * Are any of these immoral? * Non-Animal * Animals do not behave in this manner, so it is unnatural * Animals do practice Homosexuality (Penguins) * Animals can even change genders * More importantly, we shouldn’t take our moral cues from animals * They don’t cook their food *