This book addresses fundamental questions about marriage in moral and political philosophy. It examines promise, commitment, care, and contract to argue that marriage is not morally transformative. It argues that marriage discriminates against other forms of caring relationships and that, legally, restrictions on entry should be minimized.

These essays examine marriage and the family and challenge the right of men to dominate women.

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First published in 1985. Marriage and Morals won Bertrand Russell the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. With his customary wit and clarity, Russell explores the changing role of marriage, the codes of sexual ethics and the question of population. By what codes should we live our sexual lives? Every aspect, from the origin of marriage to the values of a healthy sex life, from the influence of religion, psychoanalysis and taboos to the possibilities of eugenics, receives the incisive scrutiny of Russell’s intellect. Here is the Passionate Sceptic at his most vigorous.

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