PHILOSOPHY 104-950

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING YOUR ESSAY EXAMS:

The purpose of these exams is to exhibit mastery of the course materials.  You will receive the essay questions to study.  When you think you have mastered the materials in these questions, you should schedule your exam with “testing services,” if you are on campus, or through the Proctoring Service (usually at a public library) if you are off-campus.

 Question 1 (REQUIRED):   

1. “What’s wrong with (a) rape; (b) adultery; (c) pornography; (d) sodomy? Do these issues of sexual conduct share the same characteristic(s} of “wrong”? If not, propose an intelligent and consistent strategy about what is, or is not wrong about these sexual practices.

Al.    There is a single and consistent strategy that addresses the permissibility of these activities.  That single strategy is…

A2.   There is not a single consistent strategy that addresses the permissibility of these activities.  Each must be addressed separately.

1. What are your reasons for defending your positions? [There should be at least 1 paragraph for each of these 4 cases]
2. Rape
3. Adultery
4. Pornography
5. Sodomy
6. How does the “Volenti Maxim” apply in these cases? Is it sufficient to justify adult choices of sexual conduct?

III.     Summary: repeat the general position for which you have argued and give a summary of the reasons for each case.

Question 2:    Pamela Foa’s critique of rape argues that the assessment by Frye and Shaffer does not go far enough.  Discuss these views. What do you think and why?

1. What is wrong with rape?

1. 1. Explicate the position of Frye and Schaeffer on the wrongness of rape.
   2. Explicate the position of Foa on the wrongness of rape. How does it criticize Frye and Schaeffer?
   3. What do you think and why?

• Summary: repeat the general position for which you have argued, and a summary of the reasons for each.

Question 3:   Wasserstrom argues that the wrongness of adultery ultimately rests on the moral defensibility of monogamous marriage. Discuss this thesis.

1. Is adultery always wrong?

2. A) Present Wasserstrom’s arguments for the Wrongness of Clarify them by examples.
3. B) What arguments does Wasserstrom present to challenge these traditional arguments?
4. C) What do you think, and why? Is adultery always wrong? Is it ever wrong, and in what sense(s)?

• Summary: repeat the general position for which you have argued, and a summary of the reasons for each case.

Question 4:    The case against pornography is at once the case for asserting that impersonal harms are indeed violations of the harm principle. Are they?  Consider some of the arguments Berger presents accusing pornography of causing harm. Do you think these arguments are strong enough to outweigh the force of the Volenti maxim? Why?

1. Does Pornography Violate the “harm principle”?

2. A) Define pornography? How can we be sure we are talking about the same thing?
3. B) Is Pornography the same as “obscenity”? What’s the difference, if any?
4. C) Present two or three arguments that Berger suggests are the strongest to show that pornography deserves to be censored.
5. D) Present two or three arguments that Berger suggests are the strongest to show that pornography should not be censored.
6. E) What do you think, and why?

• Summary: repeat the general position for which you have argued, and a summary of the reasons for each case.

Question 5:  The case of Bowers v Hardwick enabled the Supreme Court to declare that states have a legitimate right to repress certain kinds of sexual conduct, even though it is both consensual and enacted in private. Discuss the case and the Court’s reasoning. Compared to Lawrence v Texas, what conclusions about our private consensual sexual practices do you draw?

1. Is consensual sodomy a violation of the “harm principle”?

2. A) What is sodomy? Define it.
3. B) What were the legal arguments for repressing it in the 1986 Supreme Court case of Bowers v Hardwick?
4. C) What were the legal arguments for reversing Bowers v Hardwick in Lawrence and Garner v the State of Texas in 2003?
5. D) What do you think about the “legal” arguments? Are they convincing, and in what senses?
6. E) What do you think about the “moral” arguments. Does consensual sodomy violate the harm principle?

• Summary: repeat the general position for which you have argued, and a summary of the reasons for each case.