Sexual Ethics and Natural Law: 21st Century Perspectives

Location

Warren Auditorium

Free

Explorations in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
Sexual Ethics and Natural Law: 21st Century Perspectives

Keynote
Todd Salzman, PhD, professor of Ethics at Creighton University

Panel
John Donnelly, PhD, Philosophy, USD
Emily Reimer-Barry, PhD, Theology and Religious Studies, USD

For more information go to www.sandiego.edu/cctc/explore.php. 

This presentation is divided into three parts. First, it explains natural law as an objectivist metaethic, which recognizes that the good can be defined universally, and that in Catholic Christian ethics, it is defined as that which facilitates human dignity. This objectivist definition of the good, however, allows for pluralistic perspectives on the definition of sexual human dignity and the norms that facilitate attaining sexual human dignity.

Second, it presents various Catholic 21st century perspectives on the definition of sexual human dignity. Third, it compares and contrasts two definitions of sexual human dignity, Pope John Paul's Ontological Complementarity and Salzman and Lawler's Holistic Complementarity and the normative implications of these perspectives for sexual ethics.