Title: Marriage and Domestic Partnership (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Headings: Marriage and Domestic Partnership
Marriage and Domestic Partnership
1. Defining Marriage
2. Understanding Marriage: Historical Orientation
3. Marriage and Morals
3.1 Contractual Views
3.2 Institutional Views
3.2.1 New Natural Law: Marriage as Procreative Union
3.2.2 Marriage as Protecting Love
4. The Politics of Marriage
4.1 Marriage and Legal Contract
4.2 The Rationale of Marriage Law
4.3 Same-Sex Marriage
4.4 Arguments for Marriage Reform
5. Marriage and Oppression
5.1 Feminist Approaches
5.2 The Queer Critique
Bibliography
Contemporary Works
Historical Works
Academic Tools
Other Internet Resources
Acknowledgments

Content: Marriage and Domestic Partnership (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Marriage and Domestic Partnership
First published Sat Jul 11, 2009; substantive revision Tue Nov 29, 2016
Marriage, a prominent institution regulating sex, reproduction, and family life, is a route into classical philosophical issues such as the good and the scope of individual choice, as well as itself raising distinctive philosophical questions. Political philosophers have taken the organization of sex and reproduction to be essential to the health of the state, and moral philosophers have debated whether marriage has a special moral status and relation to the human good. Philosophers have also disputed the underlying moral and legal rationales for the structure of marriage, with implications for questions such as the content of its moral obligations and the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Feminist philosophers have seen marriage as playing a crucial role in women's oppression and thus a central topic of justice. In this area philosophy courts public debate: in 1940, Bertrand Russell's appointment to an academic post was withdrawn on the grounds that the liberal views expressed in Marriage and Morals made him morally unfit for such a post. Today, debate over same-sex marriage is highly charged. Unlike some contemporary issues sparking such wide interest, there is a long tradition of philosophical thought on marriage. Philosophical debate concerning marriage extends to what marriage, fundamentally, is;