Philippe Hayek

Dr. Galloway
PHIL 325-03
February 24th

Article #8 by Vincent Punzo: "Morality and Human Sexuality" 

Vincent C. Punzo is a professor of philosophy at St. Louis University. He begins his

argument that there is a significant difference between sexuality and other types of human
activity. By then emphasizing aspects of the human self, he composes an idea against sex
before marriage. Marriage, in the eyes of Punzo, is an ultimate commitment. He separates
this framework from his ideas of sexuality, which he thinks lack integrity and are inherently
flawed likewise. Despite his rigid commitment to the arguement that premartial sex is wrong,
he makes moral allowances in the name of sexual identity and desire on the road to
marriage. Punzo rests these seemingly controversial ideas on the moral basis of thou shalt
do no harm, which condemns the notion of a sexual relationship without integrity. The
intertwining of ideas like integrity, morality, and sexuality seems to always lead to more
questions than answers.
Punzo's arguments are logically valid, but it fails to give any value to the idea of
casual sexual relations as benefical. Punzo’s rigid definition of marriage prevents these
ideas from having any merit in his discussion, and I disagree with Punzo’s idea that
marriage is the only integral and moral commitment worthy of sexual activity. Despite the
concessions that Punzo made to the ideas of casual sexual intimacy, he fails to take their
real value into account. In reality, everyone is physiologically and psychologically different.
Thus, how people value and control their sexual identities is almost randomly selected, and
this prevents me from accepting that the institution of marriage is holier than thou. The
range of human emotions on the subject implies that regardless of Punzo’s matrimonial
integrity, the convention loses its moral authority given the impulsivity of circumstance. It
fails to account for human randomness and impulsivity, and therefore marriage can not be
readily relied on as an institution of absolute moral authority.