Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:58:01.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Kant on the Law of Marriage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2013

Allan Beever
Allan Beever*
Affiliation:
University of South Australia Email: Allan.Beever@unisa.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The account of marriage Kant presents in the Rechtslehre strikes most readers as cold, legalistic and obsessed with sex. It seems to ignore at least nearly all of the morally valuable aspects of marriage. Consequently, most have felt that this is a feature of Kant's theory best ignored. Against this view, this article argues that Kant's focus is appropriate, that his understanding of marriage is much more romantic than is commonly thought and that it presents a thought-provoking alternative to the picture of marriage found in the modern law.

Keywords

Lawmarriageconsentsexthe right of humanityslavery
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , November 2013 , pp. 339 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Kantian Review 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altman, Matthew C. (2010) ‘Kant on Sex and Marriage: The Implications for the Same-Sex Marriage Debate’. Kant-Studien, 101, 309–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aristotle (1999) Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Baker, John Hamilton (2002) An Introduction to English Legal History. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Brecht, Bertolt (1967) Gesammelte Werke in acht Bänden. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.Google Scholar
Brink, David O (1992) ‘Mill's Deliberative Utilitarianism’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 21, 67–103.Google Scholar
de Laurentiis, Allegra (2000) ‘Kant's Shameful Proposition: A Hegel Inspired Criticism of Kant's Theory of Domestic Right’. International Philosophical Quarterly, 40, 297–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denis, Lara (2001) ‘From Friendship to Marriage: Revising Kant’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 63, 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denis, Lara (2010) ‘Freedom, Primacy, and Perfect Duties to Oneself’. In Lara Denis (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 170–191.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul (2002) ‘Kant's Deduction of the Principles of Right’. In Mark Timmons (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 23–64.Google Scholar
Hegel, G.W.F. (1991) Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, Barbara (1993) ‘Could it be Worth Thinking about Kant on Sex and Marriage?’. In Louise M. Antony and Charlotte Witt (eds.), A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity (Boulder, CO: Westview Press), 53–72.Google Scholar
Höffe, Otfried (2010) ‘Kant's Innate Right as a Rational Criterion for Human Rights’. In Lara Denis (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 71–92.Google Scholar
Hohfeld, Wesley Newcomb (2001) Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning. Dartmouth: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kneller, Jane (2006) ‘Kant on Sex and Marriage Right’. In Paul Guyer (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy (New York: Cambridge University Press), 447–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine M. (1996) Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuehn, Manfred (2001) Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maine, Henry Sumner (1920) Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society and its Relation to Modern Ideas. London: John Murry.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart (2009) ‘On Liberty’. In The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, The Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism (New York: Classic Books America), 2–128.Google Scholar
Nicholas, Barry (1962) An Introduction to Roman Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
O'Neill, Onora (1989) Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant's Practical Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Plato (2006) Plato on Love: Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, with Selections from Republic, Laws. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Ripstein, Arthur (2009) Force and Freedom: Kant's Legal and Political Philosophy. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaff, Kory (2001) ‘Kant, Political Liberalism, and the Ethics of Same-Sex Relations’. Journal of Social Philosophy, 32, 446–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Irving (2002) ‘The Morality of Sex: Contra Kant’. In Alan Soble (ed.), The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield), 259–272.Google Scholar
Willaschek, Marcus (1997) ‘Why the Doctrine of Right does Not Belong in the Metaphysics of Morals’. Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik, 5, 205–227.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard (1983) Kant's Political Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wood, Allen W. (2002) ‘The Final Form of Kant's Practical Philosophy’. In Mark Timmons (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 1–22.Google Scholar
Zweigert, KonradKötz, Hein (1998) An Introduction to Comparative Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar