ABSTRACT
I examine the relationship between erotic love and marriage in the Western tradition, focusing on developments beginning in the modern period. I contend that both love and marriage are social practices and that philosophical thinking about them reflects their socio-historical context. I discuss important touchstones in the development of modern marriage (Locke, Kant, Hegel), as well as evolving criticisms (Wollstonecraft, Fuller, Mill, Russell, Goldman, De Beauvoir, and others). Key issues concern the epistemic status of love, love’s moral potential, the relationship between marriage and the state, whether marriage requires equality, the gendered history of marital love, and the relationship between homoeroticism and marriage. As social practices, both love and marriage (and the relationship between them) are normative concerns that allow for renewed philosophical theorizing.
