Elizabeth Anscombe and an argument against contraception

Authors

  • Anthony Mccarthy International Theological Institute

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.3477

Keywords:

Teleology, contraception, sexual ethics, marriage, nature, unnatural, moral ­philosophy, Thomas Aquinas, Elizabeth Anscombe, Herbert McCabe

Abstract

In the 1960s, before the promulgation of Humanae Vitae, the Catholic philosophers Elizabeth Anscombe and Herbert McCabe OP debated whether there are convincing natural law arguments for the claim that contraception violates an exceptionless moral norm. This article revisits those arguments and critiques McCabe’s approach to natural law, concerned primarily with ‘social sin’ and not simply violations of ‘right reason,’ as one particularly ill-suited to addressing questions in sexual ethics and unable both to distinguish properly between certain forms of sexual wrongdoing and more obviously social sins such as theft, and also to distinguish between ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ sexual acts. Anscombe’s views, I argue, are closer to those of Thomas Aquinas and provide reasons for making the distinctions McCabe does not. An argument concerning the nature of the institution of marriage and the effects of non-marital acts on that institution is proposed as a way of strengthening Anscombe’s argument that contraception violates an exceptionless moral norm.

Author Biography

  • Anthony Mccarthy, International Theological Institute
    Dr Anthony McCarthy is the Director of the Bios Centre in London and a visiting scholar at the International Theological Institute, Trumau, Austria. He holds a doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Surrey and a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from University College, London, and King’s College, London. His research interests include life ethics, sexual ethics, social ethics and action theory. He is the author of Ethical Sex: Sexual Choices and Their Nature and ­Meaning ­(Fidelity Press 2016).

References

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Anscombe G. E. M., Contraception and Chastity, in: Faith in a Hard Ground: Essays on Religion, Philosophy and Ethics by GEM Anscombe, eds. M. Geach, L. Gormally, Exeter 2008, p. 170–192.

Anscombe G. E. M., Contraception and Natural Law, “New Blackfriars” 46 (1965), p. 517–521.

Kant I., The Metaphysics of Morals, Cambridge 1996.

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McCabe H., Contraceptives and Natural Law, “New Blackfriars” 46 (1964) 533, p. 89–96.

McCabe H., The New Creation, London 2010.

McCabe H., Veritatis Splendor in focus: Manual and rule books, http://www.natural-law-and-conscience.org/readings/mccabe.asp (19.07.2017).

McCarthy A., Ethical Sex: Sexual Choices and Their Nature and Meaning, South Bend 2016.

Nagel T., Sexual Perversion, in: Mortal Questions, by T. Nagel, Cambridge 1979, p. 39–52.

Scruton R., Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation, London 2006.

Voorhoeve A., Conversations on Ethics, Oxford 2011.

Williams B., Tanner M., Correspondence and Comments, “The Human World” 9 (1972), p. 41–48.

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Published

2019-12-31

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Articles

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