After Marriage: Rethinking Marital Relationships

260 Pages·2016·2.592 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Brake (ed.)

After Marriage

After Marriage
Rethinking MaRital Relationships
Edited by ElizabEth brakE
3
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
After marriage: rethinking marital relationships / edited by Elizabeth Brake.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–020508–9 (pbk.: alk. paper)—ISBN 978–0–19–020507–2 (cloth: alk.
paper) 1. Marriage. 2. Marriage law. 3. Marriage—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Brake,
Elizabeth.
HQ734.B784 2016
306.81—dc23
2015009992
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
List of Contributors ix
Introduction 1
Elizabeth Brake
1 Liberal Neutrality and Civil Marriage 9
Simon Căbulea May
2 Is Civil Marriage Illiberal? 29
Ralph Wedgwood
3 The Limitations of Contract: Regulating Personal
Relationships in a Marriage-Free State 51
Clare Chambers
4 Is Marriage Bad for Children?: Rethinking the
Connection Between Having Children, Romantic
Love, and Marriage 84
Samantha Brennan and Bill Cameron
5 Equality and Non-hierarchy in Marriage: What Do
Feminists Really Want? 100
Elizabeth Brake
6 Liberty and Polygamy 125
Peter de Marneffe
7 Polygamy, Privacy, and Equality 160
Laurie Shrage
8 Temporary Marriage 180
Daniel Nolan
9 The (Dis)value of Commitment to One’s
Spouse 204
Anca Gheaus
Bibliography 225
Index 235
|
vi Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The bulk of the credit for this volume lies, of course, with the authors;
many thanks for their hard work and patience.
Others contributed significantly to the existence of this book. David
Chesley assisted greatly in preparing the manuscript for publication. His
editorial assistance was funded with a grant from the School of Historical,
Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. The
Institute of Humanities Research at Arizona State University provided
funds for professional preparation of the index. Peter Ohlin and Emily
Sacharin at Oxford University Press have been wonderfully patient and
helpful.
I would especially like to thank Tamara Metz and Cheshire Calhoun
for discussions which prompted me, from the start, to think about what
directions the collection might take and for helping me to see new angles.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Elizabeth Brake is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State
University. She previously taught at the University of Calgary, Canada.
Her work is primarily in feminist ethics and political philosophy. Her
book, Minimizing Marriage (Oxford University Press, 2012), won an
Honorable Mention for the 2014 APA Book Prize. She has also written
on parental rights and obligations, liberal theory, Kant and Hegel, and is
currently working on a project on disaster ethics. She has held a Murphy
Institute Fellowship at Tulane and a Canadian SSHRC Grant.
Samantha Brennan is Professor of Philosophy at Western University,
Canada. She is also a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, an
affiliate member of the Department of Women’s Studies and Feminist
Research, and a member of the graduate faculty of the Department
of Political Science. Brennan received her PhD from the University of
Illinois at Chicago. Her doctoral thesis “Thresholds for Rights” was writ-
ten under the supervision of Shelly Kagan. Brennan’s BA in Philosophy is
from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Brennan has broad rang-
ing research interests in contemporary normative ethics, feminist ethics,
applied ethics, political philosophy, children’s rights and family justice,
gender and sexuality, death, and fashion.
Bill Cameron holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Western
Ontario. He works at the intersection of metaethics, feminist philosophy,
and moral epistemology, with a particular focus on pluralism and intu-
itionism. He is also actively engaged in popular philosophy and philoso-
phy of pop culture. He currently works in the private sector.