I was reading Andrew Sullivan's view about homosexuality (in favor) and was wondering what would be the Kantian and Utilitarian response to his arguments.

Not having the details of Sullivan's view ready to hand, all I can offer are some general comments on homosexuality, Kant and utilitarianism. On Kant, you might want to have a look at the replies to question 1681 , and if you can get a copy, at Alan Soble's paper "Kant and Sexual Perversion," cited in his answer to that question. Prof. Soble makes a strong case that Kant's views on homosexuality are little more than sophisticated gay-bashing. The most relevant Kantian thought might seem to be that we should never treat anyone -- ourselves included -- merely as a means and not also as an end. In Kant's view, any sort of sex outside marriage falls short on this score, including masturbation. (Kant seems to have been particularly hung up about solitary sex.) This means that arguments against homosexuality based on Kant's views are likely to prove more than their proponent may have had in mind. In any case, it's hard to credit the view that non-marital sex always amounts to nothing more than...
Sex

Why is it not acceptable to be naked in public? What makes it so absurd for people to be seen in their natual state? If i went to school naked, I would probably get expelled. So how did we come to decide what state of appearance should be in particular settings? Has it originated and developed because of the feelings people feel when they see a nude person that have caused us to think up this idea of clothing our bodies? Get what I'm trying to say? Deep down everyone wants society to make nudity the norm! (Except people living where it's real cold.)

Part of what you're asking is a social science question: taboos against public nudity are pretty common (though not universal). How come? What's the best psychological or anthropological or perhaps even evolutionary explanation? Not being a social scientist, all I could do is speculate. The blindingly obvious thought it that it has something to do with sex, which is what I take you to be suggesting, though exactly what it has to do with sex is harder to say. If I were going to try to sort this out, I would probably turn to anthropology. Different cultures seem to have different attitudes toward nudity, and perhaps the anthropologists have some light to shed on all this. It's clear that societies with more relaxed attitudes toward nudity aren't morally defective on that account, but it would take some arguing to show that societies with a more modest outlook (ours, for example) are morally better for that reason. Here's another thought. Fantasies about others' bodies are exciting for some...

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