Depends on who is defining the term, and in case of law, jurisdiction. Some places define both parties as guilty of adultery. Some only do so contingent on whether it was the man that was married, or the woman (e.g. Utah).
Morally, it is fairly unambiguous. If the unmarried partner knew they were banging a married person, they are just as responsible.
> Morally, it is fairly unambiguous. If the unmarried partner knew they were banging a married person, they are just as responsible.
Perhaps that's your moral view, but it does not represent everyone else's morals, so I don't know why you're claiming it to be "unambiguous". There's plenty of people who would say that the unmarried person in an affair shares less of the blame than the married person in the affair. For starters, the married person breaks a contract, whereas the unmarried person does not have a contract to break.
> but it does not represent everyone else's morals
Yes, I'm sure you can find at least one person who doesn't agree. Maybe yourself. But how much do you want to bet that if you asked this question to 100 people, better than 90 of them would agree?
> For starters, the married person breaks a contract, whereas the unmarried person does not have a contract to break
I said moral, not legal. A few people only define right & wrong based on what they can legally get away with, I understand.
> But how much do you want to bet that if you asked this question to 100 people, better than 90 of them would agree
I would guess that more than 50 of those 100 people would agree with me that the married person shares more of the blame than the unmarried person.
Anyway, even if you're somehow better than me at guessing what other people think about moral questions, to the point where so much as 90% of people agree with you on this one, is that "unambiguous" in your mind? I would think "unambiguous" is something like 99,99% or more.
> I said moral, not legal.
I was also referring to a moral contract, not a legal one. Most people who are in a marriage have an agreement between each other that they shall not mess with other people (not a legally enforceable contract, but an agreement nonetheless). If you dedicate yourself to one person, and then you go and betray them behind their back, you're breaking a certain moral code. That's my opinion. If you think that the married and the unmarried person share equal blame, I guess you don't see anything wrong with breaking that contract? If committing adultery is just as bad as committing adultery PLUS breaking a contract, then clearly in your mind breaking a contract is not bad?
Morally, it is fairly unambiguous. If the unmarried partner knew they were banging a married person, they are just as responsible.