Ethics

In Yolanda Estes’ essay “Moral Reflections on Prostitution” she argues that “prostitution violates the Kantian ‘principle of humanity’ because it reflects a disrespectful attitude, which is expressed in the nonchalant use of the human body as a mere means to achieve some goal” (p.1). I merit Estes for arguing her belief logically using the support of five clearly outlined claims.
Her first claim discussed how the “Kantian moral theory identifies subjectivity and dignity with a self-determining will located within the limited willing activity of an embodied individuals” (p.1). She went on to explain how individuals identify as a subject and identifies sexuality as being “one way in which individuals express their subjectivity”, but that “not all sexual activities involve mutual respect” (p.1). A merit to Estes’s claim here was that she took her possible non-Kantian opponents into account when she noted that not all moral theories would agree with her account of sexual morality but that most would agree that sexual relations should include some sort of mutual respect.
From this idea ...