QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHY IS MARRIAGE INTERESTING?

It's been said that the basic question of philosophy is, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" So okay--why is there marriage? What makes marriage important for public policy, and for us as people? What makes it interesting, beyond the fact that people want to get married?

One account, which I've heard Maggie Gallagher give, starts with a simple four-step formula: Sex makes babies. Societies need babies. Children need mothers and fathers. Marriage is how we address these three facts.

If not this, what are the reasons this social institution exists; is supported, regulated, and promoted by government and civil society; and is important enough that it really matters whether people marry?

And if marriage is not the institution designed to address the three facts above, does it matter that there's no other institution that is designed to address them?

posted by Eve at 9:59 PM | link

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