Is the title of my Blog Site outdated? In 2014 I published a book defending traditional sexual morality.1 I contended that there was a widely accepted view that no sexual act by itself was morally impermissible. I called this moral neutrality of sexual acts “sexual nihilism.” The commonly used term is “sexual amorality”. I went on to make a case that sexual amorality (sexual nihilism) led to total amorality (nihilism) that nothing matter because in principle nothing was right or wrong. Traditional sexual morality was proposed as an antidote for drifting into nihilism.
I started this Blog Site to continue this line of thought. Recently I read an anthology which requires serious reconsideration of my defense of traditional sexual morality.2 Most of the writers for this anthology made moral judgments about sexual behavior. The moral judgments were contrary to those of traditional sexual morality. For instance, all assume that masturbation and homosexuality are morally permissible. Their sincerely held moral judgments undercuts a major line of thought in my book. I assumed too uncritically that those who dismissed traditional sexual morality would ultimately make no moral judgments about sexuality.
To respond, I plan a triad of posts. The goal of this triad is to characterize and evaluate a moral theory supporting the moral judgments of these writers. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that this is a moral outlook. It is not moral relativism. For these writers, since it is wrong to suppress homosexuality in the USA, Ugandans are morally wrong in trying to suppress homosexuality. I will label this progressive sexual morality Sexual Morality of Authentic Selves. In the first post of the triad, I speculate about the origin of this new sexual morality in relation to traditional sexual morality, the crucial role of consent and a search for authentic consent. In the second post of this triad, I finish the sketch of this moral theory by elaborating on the good which is supposed to be promoted and protected by sexual morality. In the third I evaluate it as an alternative to traditional sexual morality.
- Confronting Sexual Nihilism: Traditional Sexual Morality as an Antidote to Nihilism,
- The Palgrave handbook of sexual ethics, Editor: Boonin-Vail, David, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023