Philosophy 1490: Description
Sex is an important part of human experience, and questions about it have been central to literature, politics, religion, and many other topics. It also gives rise to characteristically philosophical questions. What exactly is sex? How are sexual activities, desires, interests, and attractions related to one another? What makes such things `sexual'? What sorts of ethical considerations arise in the case of sexuality? Is consent always required if sexual activity is to be ethical? Is sex between consenting adults always guaranteed to be morally unobjectionable? Or are there cases in which even consensual sex is morally problematic? What exactly is wrong about rape? And is fantasizing about rape itself wrong? How do disparities due to race, gender, disability, and the like affect the ethical character of sexual interactions? Does pornography objectify or otherwise demean women, members of certain racial groups, and/or disabled people? And what exactly is objectification? Why should it be thought problematic? We'll explore these are similar questions throughout the course.
Prerequisites
No specific prior preparation is required, but many of the articles we will be reading are dense and difficult. As usual with 1000-level courses, then, students should have taken at least one prior course in philosophy, and two are really preferred. Previous work on gender or sexuality, or feminist theory, may well substitute for prior work in philosophy, however.
Readings
As just said, the papers we will be reading are generally hard. You should expect to read each paper at least twice in order to understand it. The first time you read a paper, I'd suggest you just read through it quickly; don't worry too much if you're not getting everything. At this point, you're just trying to get a general sense for what the author is trying to do. The second time you read the paper, you should slow down. This is when you really do want to pause and think carefully through the various arguments that the author is giving. You will find extended reading notes to help you on the course website and on Canvas. (See
this page by Jim Pryor for more on how to read philosophy.)
There are no textbooks for the course. All readings are accessible from the course website. For most of these, you will have digital access though the Brown library. For others, you will need a username and password that will be distributed in class.