PHILOSOPHY 2103

LOVE, SEX, AND FRIENDSHIP

Course Outline 

Spring Term, 2013

Office and hours: CC273; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 1-3 pm. communication: Phone: 563-1252; e-mail, scott_stewart@cbu.ca

Grading:  (1) Test 1: May 15, (2) Test 2: May 23, (3) Test 3: May 30

            All assignments are of equal value.  

Text and Handouts: Laurie Shrage & Scott Stewart, Draft copy of Philosophizing About Sex.

            Please note:

            (1) Although there is no grade given formally for class participation and/or attendance, past experience has shown a high correlation between these activities and good grades.

            (2) Come to class prepared by having read the assigned reading for that day. Always bring your printout(s) or laptop to class so we can refer to them during class time.

            (3) Make-up tests and late assignments will be given/accepted only under special circumstances and with my prior knowledge. If you are unable to write a test or make a deadline, you must at the very least leave me a voice or e-mail message.

            (4) You will be graded on your writing skills as well as on other criteria.

            (5) There is no supplementary exam for this course.

            (6) CBU has regulations concerning “Forms of Academic Dishonesty” including such things as plagiarism and cheating. You should make yourself aware of these policies by reading the appropriate section(s) of the CBU calendar.

            (7) Some students may find some of the material dealt with in this course offensive. Look carefully over the course outline. If some of these topics are bothersome for you, please consider another course.


 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

This course will look exclusively or almost exclusively at the philosophy sex, though it will also cover some philosophical material on the nature of love if time permits. We will explore issues such as how sex is to be defined, whether there is anything wrong with sexual objectification, whether we can classify some sexual acts as perversions, to what extent we should tolerate sexual practices different from our own, how sex and marriage are related, both conceptually and in practice, how science has studied sex, and whether we ought to control the expression of sexual material.

 

(TENTATIVE) OUTLINE AND READINGS

 

 

DATE(S)   TOPIC                            READINGS

 

May 7  Introduction                              none

 

May 8  Defining sex                               "Ch. 1 slides" Stewart, "Saying How You Feel..." "Saying how you feel slides"

 

May 9 Sexual attraction                      ""  "Chapter 2 slides"  Frederich Elliston, "InDefense of Promistuity" (handout)

Promiscuity "slides" from UW-Rock County 

 

May 14 Sexual Objectification                Chapter 3 "slides"   Ericson, "Charges Against Prostitution"

            & Sexual Exploitation

May 15 9-11 a.m. TEST 1        "TEST 1 STUDY QUESTIONS"

 

May 16 Sexual Perversion                      "Chapter 4 Slides"

 

May 21  Sex and Marriage                    "Sex and marriage slides"

May 22   The scientific and medical             "Chapter 11 slides"

                        study of sex    

May 23 9-11 a.m. TEST 2       " TEST 2 STUDY QUESTIONS/TAKE-HOME EXAM"

 

May 28 Sex and the limits of                   "Sex and Toleration slides"

                        toleration

May 29   Love        TBA

 

May 30 9-11 a.m. TEST 3    "TEST 3 STUDY QUESTIONS/TAKE HOME EXAM"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall term, 2012

 

Office and hours: CC273; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-Noon; Wednesdays,  1:30-2:30

                            drop by, or set up an appointment.

Communication: Phone: 563-1252; e-mail: scott_stewart@cbu.ca

Grading:  All assignments are worth an equal value.

(1) In class test: October 2  "TEST 1 STUDY QUESTIONS"

                        (2) In class test OR Essay: Nov 8 "ESSAY ASSIGNMENT"  "Test 2 study questions"

               (3) Final test: Dec. 14, 9-11 am in CC 261. Final Exam "Study Questions"

Text and Handouts: R.M. Stewart, Philosophical Perspectives on Sex and Love, Oxford University Press, 1995.

            Please note:

            (1) Although there is no grade given formally for class participation and/or attendance, past experience has shown a high correlation between these activities and good grades.

            (2) Come to class prepared by having read the assigned reading for that day. Always bring your text-book and/or printout(s) to class so we can refer to them during class time.

            (3) Make-up tests and late assignments will be given/accepted only under special circumstances and with my prior knowledge. If you are unable to write a test or make a deadline, you must at the very least leave me a voice or e-mail message.

            (4) You will be graded on your writing skills as well as on other criteria.

            (5) There is no supplementary exam for this course.

            (6) CBU has regulations concerning “Forms of Academic Dishonesty” including such things as plagiarism and cheating. You should make yourself aware of these policies by reading the appropriate section(s) of the CBU calendar.

            (7) Some students may find some of the material dealt with in this course offensive. Look carefully over the course outline. If some of these topics are bothersome for you, please consider another course.

 Course Description

      What are the relationships between sex, love and friendship? Can we have it all or, as Plato seems to suggest, must physical eroticism give way to transcendent love of idealized forms if we are to achieve tranquility and knowledge in this world? What do we look for in sex, in love, and in friendship? Can we define what a sexual desire is? Is adultery immoral? Promiscuity? Homosexuality? Is there a difference between pornography and eroticism? Should either (or both) be censored? Should the government ban prostitution? What is ‘real’ friendship, and in what ways is it important in our lives?

 Outline & Readings (Tentative)

ALL ARTICLES WHICH ARE NOT LINKED BELOW ARE IN YOUR TEXTBOOK!!

Date Topic Readings
Sept 11

 

13, 18, 20

 

 

 

Introduction: Sexual Ethics

 

Sexual   Norms & Ethics:  Homosexuality 

 

 

 

 

 

Pope Paul VI, "The Vatican Declaration"

Leiser, 'Homosexuality and the Unnaturalness Arg.’

Ruse, ‘Is Homosexuality Bad Sexuality?’

Stewart, "Same Sex Marriage"

25, 27

Sexual   Norms & Ethics:  Prostitution Shrage, “Should feminists oppose prostitution?”

Stewart, “Moral criticism ... prostitution:

Ericsson, " Charges against prostitution: An … assessment " If that doesn't work, try "Ericsson, Prostitution"

Ekberg, "Abolishing prostitution: The Swedish Solution"

Additional Readings: 

Pateman, “Defending Prostitution: Charges against Ericsson”

Satz, “Markets in Women’s Sexual Labor”

 

OCTOBER 2 TEST 1  
4, 9, 11 Sexual Desire

Nagel, "Sexual Perversion"

Nozick, "Sexuality"

Stewart, "Saying How You Feel"  Saying How You Feel "Powerpoint"

Stewart, "Constructing Perversions..." "Constructing Perversions Powerpoint"

16, 18, 23 Sexual   Norms & Ethics:  'Fooling Around'

Hume, “Of chastity and modesty”

Wasserstrom, “Is Adultery Immoral?”

Elliston, “In Defense of Promiscuity”

Stewart, "Polygamy..."

Additional Readings:

Drukerman, "Lust in Translation"

Drukerman, "Marriage Industrial Complex"

Perel, "Mating in Captivity"

Vannoy, “Sex with love vs. Sex without love

Rubin, “Intimate Strangers”

Quine, “The Primacy of God’s Will in Christian Ethics”

Baier, “Hume’s Account …”

Bertocci, “The Human Venture in Sex, Love, and Marriage

     
     
25, 30, Nov. 1 Sexual   Norms & Ethics: Pornography & Eroticism

 Susie Bright,  “Introduction” to Herotica 3

Serena Molloch, Serena Moloch, “My Date With Marcie,"

Wicclair, "Wicclair, “Feminism, Pornography, and Censorship"

Additional Readings:

Dyzenhaus, “J.S. Mill and the Harm of Pornography”

Gastil, “The Moral Right of the Majority to Restrict … Pornography…”

Langton, “Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts”

Langton, “Whose Right? …”

Jacobsen, “Freedom and Speech Acts: A Response to Langton”

MacKinnon, “Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech”

MacKinnon, “Sexuality, Pornography, and Method …”

Pateman, “Sex and Power”

Vernon, “J.S. Mill and Pornography: Beyond the Harm Principle”

Scoccia, “Can Liberals support a ban on violent Pornography?” 

 

Nov. 6 TEST 2 OR ESSAY  
8, 13, 15, 20 Love

Plato, ‘Aristophanes’ speech’ from the Symposium’

Plato, ‘Socrates’ speech from the Symposium’

Singer, “Appraisal and Bestowal”

Nozick, “Love’s Bond”

Stewart, "Breaking up is hard to do"

Additional Readings:

Santas, “Plato’s Theory of Love in the Symposium

Velleman, “Love as Moral Emotion”

Warner, “Love, Self, and Plato’s Symposium

     
Nov, 22, 27, 29 Friendship

Aristotle, from the Nicomachean Ethics

Conlon, “Why lovers can’t be friends”

Additional Readings:

Cocking & Kennett, “Friendship and the Self”

Meyer, “Rights Between Friends”

Sherman, “Aristotle on Friendship and the Shared Life”

     

(All required readings are contained in the Course Pack.   "Additional readings" can be accessed on the course web page.)