Natural Law and Natural Sex
摘要
Chapter 6 looks at natural law, both in its classical and basic goods (or ‘new’) formulation. Although the latter appears to have been formulated partially as an attempt to give the traditionalism of the former new legs in the contemporary philosophical climate, I argue that the basic goods approach is woefully insufficient to secure that desideratum. Classical natural law, alternatively, provides a coherent package of a staunchly conservative nature. The only permissible sex occurs between married (opposite sex) couples engaged in the sort of sex that is aimed at procreation, or “natural sex.” Given its teleological bearings, the classical package includes downstream obligations rarely countenanced by contemporaries, such as the obligation of married couples to satisfy each other’s sexual needs and to live a common life in physical proximity to each other.