Deck 15: Sexual Morality

Question 1

Research shows that sex before marriage is almost universal among Americans.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In a recent public opinion poll, ________ percent of respondents said they believe that it is morally acceptable for a man and woman to have sex before marriage.

A) 90
B) 66
C) 25
D) 40

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to the Roman Catholic version of natural law theory, sexual activity inconsistent with procreation is prohibited. An example of such forbidden behavior is frequent sex between a man and a woman married to each other.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The central question in the morality of sex is,

A) What arguments can be marshaled against the conventional view of sex?
B) Is sexual behavior detrimental to human evolution?
C) What kind of sexual behavior is morally permissible and under what circumstances?
D) Is society as a whole becoming more liberal or more conservative in views about sexual behavior?

Question 5

The terms "rape" and "sexual assault" are synonymous with one another and can be used interchangeably.

Question 6

Moral questions surface about sexual assaults on college campuses having primarily to do with (1) whether and how justice is served after a sexual assault occurs, and (2) whether the requirement of consent is met in any kind of sexual encounter.

Question 7

The notion that as long as basic moral standards are respected, any sexual activity engaged in by informed, consenting adults is permissible is known as the ________ view.

A) hedonistic
B) conventional
C) liberal
D) moderate

Question 8

An unmarried man and woman have frequent sex and engage in activities that most of society would label unconventional, unnatural, and deviant. Their sexual behavior results in the greatest net good for all concerned. A utilitarian would therefore say that their sexual activities are

A) permissible except for deviant sex.
B) permissible except for activities labeled unnatural.
C) impermissible.
D) permissible.

Question 9

Suppose a married couple openly engages in consensual extramarital sexual activity with other people. According to Thomas Mappes's Kantian view of sexuality, the sexual behavior of this couple would be

A) permissible overall except for oral sex.
B) impermissible.
C) permissible.
D) permissible overall except for the use of contraception.

Question 10

A 2008 study showed that teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence, and they are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do. If we assume that the goal of such pledges is to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, what would a utilitarian determine should be done?

A) These pledges should be discouraged.
B) These pledges should be encouraged.
C) It does not matter one way or the other whether the pledges continue.
D) These pledges are unnatural.

Question 11

The conventionalist and the liberal take opposing views on the moral permissibility of

A) marriage.
B) love.
C) homosexuality.
D) domestic life.

Question 12

The moderate view says that sex is morally acceptable only between one man and one woman who are married to each other by legal authority.

Question 13

Alan Goldman says that the conventional view of sexuality is that sexual behavior must have a morally significant goal, such as procreation. But he argues that

A) sex is directed towards goals but not toward conventional goals.
B) sex is not a means to some other goal.
C) sex should be directed toward communicating ideas or expressing love.
D) sex is a spiritual journey.

Question 14

Many human activities are statistically out of the norm (such as skydiving and eating snails), and for that reason they are sometimes deemed unnatural. From this fact it follows that unnatural activities are

A) necessarily immoral.
B) departures from evolutionary change.
C) morally suspect.
D) not necessarily immoral.

Question 15

Many who argue against homosexuality appeal to an idea that is central to natural law theory-mainly that

A) human beings are at liberty to dispose of their anatomy and physiology as they see fit.
B) people are not obligated to stay as nature made them.
C) the way nature is tells us nothing about how we ought to be.
D) the way nature is tells us how humans ought to be.

Question 16

Kissing someone without first obtaining consent is an example of

A) rape.
B) sexual assault.
C) both rape and sexual assault.
D) neither rape nor sexual assault.

Question 17

One conventionalist argument asserts that homosexuality's misuse of bodily parts leads to

A) unhappiness.
B) sin.
C) dishonesty.
D) disillusionment.

Question 18

According to Alan Goldman, sexual desire is desire for contact with another person's body and for the pleasure that such contact produces.

Question 19

Alan Goldman and Igor Primoratz affirm that sexual behavior

A) cannot be immoral merely because it is sexual.
B) can never be immoral.
C) is always moral.
D) cannot be labeled.

Question 20

Biologists report that homosexual behavior among nonhuman animals is

A) nonexistent.
B) extremely rare.
C) widespread.
D) found only in primates.

Question 21

A utilitarian is likely to sanction many kinds of sexual activity provided that such activities do not use people as a means to an end.

Question 22

Many conventionalists favor censoring ________, which is defined as sexually explicit images or text meant to cause sexual excitement or arousal.

Question 23

Consider this argument: Sexual experiences express and affirm moral values, and the right kind of sex expresses and affirms the right kind of values. This view is advocated by conventionalists.

Question 24

Some observers of the sexual assault phenomenon on campuses think that a lot of the blame for it should be laid on campus ________ culture, as today's college students are thought to reject the notion of traditional dates, opting instead to pursue no-strings-attached sexual encounters disconnected from the messiness of romantic commitments.

Question 25

The ________ view says that morally permissible sex does not require marriage, but it does entail more than just the informed, freely given consent of the people involved, like an emotional connection.

Question 26

________ is a term that refers to rape as well as nonpenetrative sexual acts such as attempted rape and unwanted groping of sexual parts.