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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: [email protected]
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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 

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