Reasonable Reactions to the Wrongness of Rape

Abstract

The short paper is a reply to bob Watt, who takes issue in an interesting way with the moral psychology implicit in my old paper 'The Wrongness of Rape' (co-authored with Stephen Shute). Watt says that Shute and I make a sideshow of the emotions by holding them answerable to reasons. I show that this charge is false. I show that it is actually Watt who makes a sideshow of the emotions by presenting them as unresponsive to reasons. I also respond to Watt's criticism of the concrete proposal that Shute and I make, namely that rape is sheer use of a person.