Monthly Archives: November 2016

Pragmatic Arguments to Support the Paternal Principle

In this post I lay out an abstract schema for ultimately using a pragmatic argument to justify the primary thesis of my book. The thesis is the Paternal Principle that a man ought never intentionally seek an orgasm except in intercourse open to conception with a woman to whom he has made a lifelong commitment to be faithful while caring for her and their children.

Here is the schema.

1. If after following all guidelines for reasoning well, viz. careful reasoning, I have doubts about whether or not my reasoning represents reality as it is apart from my careful reasoning,viz. things in themselves then my careful reasoning is not compelling to me.
2. If my careful reasoning is not compelling to me, then my careful reasoning is not compelling.
3. If my careful reasoning is not compelling, then there are questions about how well careful reasoning represents things in themselves.
4. If there are questions about how well careful reasoning represents things in themselves, then I take the critical stance of investigating careful reasoning to judge how well it represents things in themselves. (This is the critical stance originated by DesCartes.)

In Chapter IV of my book I admit to doubts about my reasoning because of assumptions made and have really tried hard –perhaps while boring readers- to follow guidelines for careful reasoning. So, I concede that my argument for the Paternal Principle is not compelling simply on the basis of my argument for it in Chapter IV. So, putting what I just admitted together with lines (1)-(4), we get (5) whose ideas I expand in Chapter XI.

5. I take the critical stance of investigating careful reasoning to judge how well it represents things in themselves; especially with regard to the Paternal Principle and the reasoning for it.

6. If I take the critical stance of investigating careful reasoning to judge how well it represents things in themselves, especially with regard to the Paternal Principle and the reasoning for it.
then there are theoretical and practical alternatives.
7 If take a theoretical alternative a theory of things in themselves is developed and then careful reasoning is compared with the theory of things in themselves for accuracy
8. If I take a practical alternative, I continue to use careful reasoning while setting aside questions about its correctness, keeping in mind a conclusion reached by such reasoning while acting as if such a conclusion represented things in themselves with the intention of letting things in themselves convince me that the conclusion represents reality as it is apart from careful thinking. These practical alternatives are called pragmatic arguments.
9. Satisfactory theoretical alternatives cannot be developed without begging the question at issue. Development of a theory of things in themselves would use careful reasoning. However, the question at issue is whether or not careful reasoning can develop an accurate theory of things in themselves.
Hence, (10).
10.I develop a pragmatic argument for the Paternal Principle and the reasoning for it.

Much needs to be said about what is permissible in this process of a pragmatic argument and I try to spell it out in Chapter XI The main task is to show how careful reasoning is not violated while letting ourselves be convinced by factors which cannot be expressed as reasons which can be stated in words. Not much can be said in support of the assumption that we can encounter things in themselves in ways which show us things in themselves but which cannot be said. This is a realistic assumption I make but cannot justify in words. But after all, it is not a foolish assumption. I am a thing in itself. In all sorts of ways I encounter things in themselves. The reality in which I am emeshed can teach me in many ways without words. In particular, it has taught me that traditional sexual morality for men as taught by the Catholic Church is true. This is what I defend in my book.

My book Confronting Sexual Nihilism: Traditional Sexual Morality as an Antidote to Nihilism was released by Tate Publishing on March 11, 2014. See Book Web Page for information about the book. The publisher’s listed price is $26.99. Printed copies can be purchased here by credit card for $3.99, plus $3.71 for shipping and handling.





To purchase the printed book by check, send check of $3.99 plus $3.71 for shipping and handling per copy. Send to:
Charles F. Kielkopf
45 W. Kenworth Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
Include your shipping address.

What is the Fundamental Moral Principle of Female Sexuality?

Do you know of a Fundamental Moral Principle of Female Sexuality?

In my book Confronting Sexual Nihilism , I argue for a basic feature of traditional sexual morality. I call it the Paternal Principle. An elaborate statement of this principle is quoted below

A male may intentionally attain a sexual climax only in sexual intercourse with a consenting woman to whom he is bound by a life-long monogamous socially recognized union for procreation, In addition he should:(1) intend to cooperate with his spouse to protect and promote the lifelong natural development of any conception resulting from this intercourse and (2) strive to appreciate with his spouse the natural value of their sexual satisfactions and cooperate with her to enhance those satisfactions.

But this principle is only for men

The principle is intellectually accessible to women. Women, though, cannot think of it as founding their sexual morality. Of course, most aspects of humanity are common to men and women. So mutual collaboration is possible and needed for a full human sexuality. The paternal principle focuses almost exclusively on the distinctive feature of male sexuality: sperm dispersal. My thinking with male sexuality shows me that proper control of sperm dispersal can be the foundation of male sexual morality. I do not know how to think with female sexuality to locate a foundation for female sexual morality on such a single event.

We need input from women on a moral principle for female sexuality.

Readers of this post may be interested in my book on sexual morality.

Readers who email an attempt to state a fundamental principle of sexual morality for women to kielkopf.1@osu.edu will be mailed a free copy of my book.

My book Confronting Sexual Nihilism: Traditional Sexual Morality as an Antidote to Nihilism was released by Tate Publishing on March 11, 2014. See Book Web Page for information about the book. The publisher’s listed price is $26.99. Printed copies can be purchased here by credit card for $3.99, plus $3.71 for shipping and handling.





To purchase the printed book by check, send check of $3.99 plus $3.71 for shipping and handling per copy. Send to:
Charles F. Kielkopf
45 W. Kenworth Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
Include your shipping address.

A Catholic Examination of Conscience for a Catholic struggling to rationalize voting for Hillary Clinton

Catholic bishops have published pamphlets on making moral choices in voting. They are readily available in churches and Catholic publications. These statements disappoint some Catholics. The bishops bring out several truths of Catholic moral theology and point out that some legislation, such as permission for abortion, is immoral. But they do not tell us how to vote. The bishops tell us that we must form our conscience in light of the statements and then vote in accordance with our conscience. How do we form our conscience?

Pope Francis has said that the confessional should not be a torture chamber. Our conscience during an examination of conscience is and ought to be a torture chamber.

Let me outline an examination of conscience focusing on the issue of abortion only. I won’t focus solely on the act of voting because political activity involves much more than voting. For instance, there is contributing to campaigns and putting up yard signs.

To start, search yourself on whether or not you actually condemn abortion as intrinsically immoral, viz., immoral regardless of the circumstances and consequences. Perhaps you simply do not care whether or not abortions are performed. You might want abortion to be legally available if a family member has an unwanted pregnancy or a diagnosis of a defective child? Or worse, might you not implicitly support pro-choice to reduce the population of certain kinds of people? An examination of conscience can be ugly.

In any event, as a Catholic you have an obligation to act as if you think abortion is intrinsically evil because you have an obligation to form your conscience in conformity with Church teaching. A long term project is working to align your sentiments in accordance with Catholic teaching.
Can you make a contribution to the Democratic National Committee or the Clinton National Committee? The morally safe answer is” No.” These committees represent the Democratic platform as a whole or Ms. Clinton’s views as a whole outlook. As a total outlook these views explicitly endorse the permissibility of abortion. Because you have accepted abortion as an intrinsic evil it cannot be offset by any other part of the programs regardless of how laudable they may be. There is no way to designate your contribution as simply to the laudable planks of the platform.
A “yes” answer would require doing something to mitigate the possible harm by supporting pro-choice programs. Perhaps, it would help if you would donate an equal amount of money to pro-life organizations or women’s centers for alternatives to abortion. Or you could become dues paying member of a caucus of pro-life Democrats called “Democrats for Life.”

The same kind of alternatives present themselves when you consider working in Clinton’s campaign , putting up yard signs or simply trying to persuade family and friends to vote for Clinton. In these cases, though, you have to worry whether or not you are showing other people that an allegedly good Catholic is indifferent to Catholic teaching. Here you should admit to others that you are at least uncomfortable about being in apparent conflict with Catholic teaching. You should not say “I can vote for Clinton with a clear conscience.” You should be visibly conflicted!

Before coming to the last step of voting, we have to consider whether or not it is permissible to compensate supporting a pro-abortion policy by performances of pro-life activities. Is not supporting a pro-abortion policy cooperating in the acts of abortion? It is intrinsically wrong to cooperate in the performance an abortion. I do not think that simply supporting practices under which abortions may, and certainly will, be performed is materially cooperating in the completion of any of those abortions. There can be no specifiable abortion of which it can be said “but for my support that abortion would not have occurred.”

Now we come to the voting booth. If throughout the campaign you have been tormenting yourself with the above kind of examination of conscience, you have not been an enthusiastic participant in this presidential election. I think that in the voting booth, you are entitled to ask yourself the very narrow question: Which of the two serious candidates is most likely to administer the national government most effectively? To me the answer to the narrow question is “Clinton.” That is how I will vote; but not with a clear conscience after I have let my conscience be my guide.

I have plenty of compensatory work to do.

Readers of this post may be interested in my book on sexual morality.

My book Confronting Sexual Nihilism: Traditional Sexual Morality as an Antidote to Nihilism was released by Tate Publishing on March 11, 2014. See Book Web Page for information about the book. The publisher’s listed price is $26.99. Printed copies can be purchased here by credit card for $12.99, plus $3.71 for shipping and handling.





To purchase the printed book by check, send check of $16.70 per copy. Send to:
Charles F. Kielkopf
45 W. Kenworth Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
Include your shipping address.