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: Indeed, some ancients and medievals discouraged ‘excessive’ love in marriage. The ‘love revolution’ in marriage dates popularly to the 18 th century (Coontz 2006, Part 3). Ethical and political questions regarding marriage are sometimes answered by appeal to the definition of marriage. But the historical and cultural variation in marital practices has prompted some philosophers to argue that marriage is a ‘family resemblance’ concept, with no essential purpose or structure  (Wasserstrom 1974). If marriage has no essential features, then one cannot appeal to definition to justify particular legal or moral obligations. For instance, if monogamy is not an essential feature of marriage, then one cannot appeal to the definition of marriage to justify a requirement that legal marriage be monogamous. To a certain extent, the point that actual legal or social definitions cannot settle the question of what features marriage should have is just. First, past applications of a term need not yield necessary and sufficient criteria for applying it: ‘ marriage’ (like ‘citizen’) may be extended to new cases without thereby changing its meaning (Mercier 2001). Second, appeal to definition may be uninformative: