European University Institute Library

Family politics, the idea of marriage in modern political thought, Scott Yenor

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-355) and index

index present

non fiction

Family politics

bibliography

617461683

Scott Yenor

the idea of marriage in modern political thought

This work traces the treatment of the family in the philosophies of leading political thinkers of the modern world. What is family? What is marriage? In an effort to address contemporary society's disputes over the meanings of these human social institutions, the author examines a roster of major and unexpected modern political philosophers from Locke and Rousseau to Hegel and Marx to Freud and Beauvoir. He presents how these individuals developed an understanding of family in order to advance their goals of political and social reform. Through this exploration, he unveils the effect of modern liberty on this foundational institution and argues that the quest to pursue individual autonomy has undermined the nature of marriage and jeopardizes its future--, Provided by Publisher

Nature, marital unity, and contract in modern political thought -- Pt. I. The ballast of nature and the ends of the family: -- Locke and the invention of the modern family -- Rousseau and the romance of family life -- Pt. II. The moving ballast of history: -- Hegel's modern marital unity : more than a contract, less than a sacrament -- In Hegel's shadow : French sociologists and positivist defenses of the family -- Pt. III. Liberation and the movement toward the family's end: -- The city and the soul mate : Mill's late liberal vision -- Marx, Engels, and the abolition of the family -- Freud, Russell, and the liberated family -- Feminism and the family -- Pt. IV. The old family and a new nature: -- Positivism supplemented : anatomy, evolution, and the family -- A second sailing? : recovering marital unity and the purposes of the family -- What is to be thought? : tensions and lessons