Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:15:05.914Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 16 - A Character-Based Perspective on Sexual Ethics and Sex Education

from Part III - Responses to Contemporary Moral Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

Douglas W. Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Mark E. Jonas
Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Illinois
Kevin H. Gary
Affiliation:
Valparaiso University, Indiana
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, I suggest that sexual ethics as it is present in much sex education fails to address some common and formative aspects of many people’s sexual lives. I argue that the foundation of sexual ethics, as part of the ethical life more broadly, is best captured by the metaphor of vision. Any sexual ethics that treats isolated moments of sexual action as the focus of what it means to be sexually moral is insufficient because it ignores the influence that the way people see the world can have on their sexuality (and vice versa). Moral vision is shaped by character, and the way people engage their sexuality is a formative arena for character. So, sex education must address issues of character, and, conversely, attempts at character education must address the power sexuality possesses in the formation of persons.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archard, D. (1998). Sexual consent. Oxford: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Archard, D. (2003). Sex education. In Curren, R. (Ed.), A companion to the philosophy of education (pp. 540547). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Banicki, K. (2017). Iris Murdoch and the varieties of virtue ethics. In Carr, D., Arthur, J. & Kristjánsson, K. (Eds.), Varieties of virtue ethics (pp. 89104). London: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, L. (2018). “My child, my choice?” Mandatory curriculum, sex, and the conscience of parents. Educational Theory, 68(1), 1129.Google Scholar
Blum, L. (2010). Secularism, multiculturalism and same-sex marriage: A comment on Brenda Almond’s “Education for tolerance.” Journal of Moral Education, 39(2), 145–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, D. (2007). On the prospects of chastity as a contemporary virtue. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 89100). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Ciurria, M. (2011). Tolerance, acceptance and the virtue of orthonomy: A reply to Lawrence Blum and Brenda Almond. Journal of Moral Education, 40(2), 255264.Google Scholar
Corngold, J. (2012). Autonomy-facilitation or autonomy-promotion? The case of sex education. Theory and Research in Education, 10(1), 5770.Google Scholar
Corngold, J. (2013a). Introduction: The ethics of sex education. Educational Theory, 63(5), 439442.Google Scholar
Corngold, J. (2013b). Moral pluralism and sex education. Educational Theory, 63(5), 461482.Google Scholar
Denis, L. (2007). Sex and the virtuous Kantian agent. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 3748). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Dent, N. J. H. (2007). Deliberation and sense-desire. The virtue of temperance. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 109121). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Geach, P. (2007). Temperance. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and Ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 101108). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Gereluk, D. (2013). The democratic imperative to address sexual equality rights in schools. Educational Theory, 63(5), 511523.Google Scholar
Grabowski, J. S. (2003). Sex and virtue: An introduction to sexual ethics. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Halstead, J. M. (1997). Muslims and sex education. Journal of Moral Education, 26(3), 317330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halstead, J. M., & Reiss, M. J. (2003). Values in sex education: From principle to practice. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.Google Scholar
Halwani, R. (2003). Virtuous liaisons: Care, love, sex, and virtue ethics. Chicago, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Halwani, R. (Ed.) (2007). Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Halwani, R. (2018). Sexual ethics. In Snow, N. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of virtue. (pp. 680–99). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hand, M. (2007). Should we teach homosexuality as a controversial issue? Theory and Research in Education, 5(1), 6986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hand, M. (2013). Framing classroom discussions of same-sex marriage. Educational Theory, 63(5), 497510.Google Scholar
Helminiak, D. A. (2001a). Sexual ethics in college textbooks: A survey. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 26(2), 106114.Google Scholar
Helminiak, D. A. (2001b). Sexual ethics in college textbooks: A suggestion. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 26(4), 320327.Google Scholar
Heyes, J. M. (2019). Towards a virtue ethical approach to relationships and sex education. Journal of Moral Education, 48(2), 165178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hibbs, T. (n.d.). Film as evangelical instrument: American Beauty, The Ice Storm, and contemporary sexual mores. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw5w2kBfdgI&t=2372s.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. (2007). Sexuality and the unity of the virtues. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 6576). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Katsafanas, P. (2017). Autonomy, character, and self-understanding. In Fileva, I. (Ed.), Questions of character (pp. 132–46). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kendall, N. (2013). The sex education debates. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lamb, S. (1997). Sex education as moral education: Teaching for pleasure, about fantasy, and against abuse. Journal of Moral Education, 26(3), 301315.Google Scholar
Lamb, S. (2010). Toward a sexual ethics curriculum: Bringing philosophy and society to bear on individual development. Harvard Educational Review, 80(1), 81106.Google Scholar
Lamb, S. (2013a). Just the facts? The separation of sex education from moral education. Educational Theory, 63(5), 443460.Google Scholar
Lamb, S. (2013b). Sex ed for caring schools: Creating an ethics-based curriculum. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Lee, J. Y. (2021). Autonomy in the philosophy of sex and love. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 24, 381392.Google Scholar
Lenskyj, H. (1990). Beyond plumbing and prevention: Feminist approaches to sex education. Gender and Education, 2(2), 217230.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, A., Hedge, N., & Enslin, P. (2017). Sex education: Challenges and choices. British Journal of Educational Studies, 65(1), 2744.Google Scholar
McAvoy, P. (2013). The aims of sex education: Demoting autonomy and promoting mutuality. Educational Theory, 63(5), 483496.Google Scholar
Murdoch, I. (1970). The sovereignty of good. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2007). Feminism, virtue, and objectification. In Halwani, R., (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 4962). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Petrovic, J. E. (2013). Reason, liberalism, and democratic education: A Deweyan approach to teaching about homosexuality. Educational Theory, 63(5), 525541.Google Scholar
Reiss, M. J. (1995). Conflicting philosophies of school sex education. Journal of Moral Education, 24(4), 371382.Google Scholar
Reiss, M. J. (1997). Teaching about homosexuality and heterosexuality. Journal of Moral Education, 26(3), 343352.Google Scholar
Scruton, R. (2007). Sexual morality. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 7788). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Silverman, E. J. (Ed.) (2021). Sexual ethics in a secular age: Is there still a virtue of chastity? New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Slominski, K. L. (2021). Teaching moral sex: A history of religion and sex education in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Soble, A. (2007). Concealment and exposure: A mostly temperate and courageous afterward. In Halwani, R. (Ed.), Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life (pp. 229–52). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Soble, A. (2017). An essay on masturbation. In Halwani, R., Soble, A., Hoffmann, S. & Held, J. M. (Eds.), The philosophy of sex: Contemporary readings, 7th ed. (pp. 103–18). New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Soble, A., & Halwani, R. (2017). Introduction: The analytic categories of the philosophy of sex. In Halwani, R., Soble, A., Hoffmann, S. & Held, J. M. (Eds.), The philosophy of sex: Contemporary readings, 7th ed. (pp. 130). New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Steutel, J. (2009). Towards a sexual ethics for adolescence. Journal of Moral Education, 38(2), 185198.Google Scholar
Steutel, J., & de Ruyter, D. (2011). What should be the moral aims of compulsory sex education? British Journal of Educational Studies, 59(1), 7586.Google Scholar
Weil, S. (1951). Reflections on the right use of school studies with a view to the love of God. In Weil, S. (Ed.), Waiting for God. New York, NY: HarperCollins, pp. 5766.Google Scholar
White, P. (1991). Parent’s rights, homosexuality, and education. British Journal of Educational Studies, 39(4), 398408.Google Scholar
Winkler Reid, S. (2014). “She’s not a slag because she only had sex once”: Sexual ethics in a London secondary school. Journal of Moral Education, 43(2), 183197.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×