Elizabeth Brake, “Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law” (Oxford UP, 2012)
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What cultural assumptions about marriage does the host introduce at the start of the episode?
Hello. And welcome to the New Books in Philosophy channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talise. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the channel along with Carrie Figder. In our bi-monthly podcast, we talk with philosophers about their newly published books. Today? I'll be talking with Professor Elizabeth Brake. About her new book. Minimizing marriage. Which was just published with Oxford University Press. Elizabeth Brake is associate professor of philosophy. at Arizona State University. Being married is commonly seen as a sign of maturity and adulthood. Moreover? Being married is often taken to be a necessary component. of a healthy and fulfilling adult life. Accordingly.
Those adults who are not married are typically treated with suspicion. Reason pity. That is Marriage is largely seen in our society as morally transformative. Marriage also has a vast political significance. in that important rights and privileges accrue to persons in virtue of their being married. In the United States, it's not uncommon for marriage to be legally defined. In terms that specify a very particular moral conception. of the nature and purpose of marital relations. In minimizing marriage. Brake critiques these traditional moral and legal understandings of marriage. and argues for a conception of marriage as minimal. That is, Brake rejects the idea that marriage is a uniquely transformative moral relation.
She criticizes the view that marriage must be centrally focused. on a particular popular view about what loving And loving relations are like? And challenges the compatibility of existing legal and political arrangements concerning marriage with With liberal justice. On her view. Marriage should be reconceived. To be a legal relation among persons Two or more. for purposes of mutual care. This is a challenging and provocative book. Let's now turn to the interviewed. Hello, Elizabeth Brake.
Hi Bob.
How are you today?
Oh, I'm well, thanks. How are you?
Well, I'm doing fine. Thank you so much for uh joining us on New Books in Philosophy.
Um thank you for inviting me.
Well, excellent. Today I'm talking with uh Elizabeth Brake. Або херню бук минізін марадж. Which was published this year with Oxford University Press as part of their series in studies in feminist philosophy. The book is divided into two parts. The first is focused on criticizing The ways in which marriage is taken to be a morally transformative event or relation Well, more specifically, uh it's focused on um the ways in which marriage is taken to be uniquely Morally transformative. The book's second part is focused on a critique of existing legal understandings of marriage. In both parts Uh break argues for a kind of deflation of marriage. or minimizing of marriage. She holds that it's not uniquely transformative as a relation.
And that its legal dimension should be broadened, or in other words, she holds that the legal constraints on what could count as marriage should be minimized, that is, there should be fewer constraints. The result is, in my view, a a compelling position about uh what just marriage or what a just marriage institution would look like. And there's obviously uh lots to say, uh but before we get in To the details of Elizabeth's view. Um Elizabeth, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Oh, thanks Bob. Well, I grew up in a small town in uh Southern Virginia until the age of ten and that made an impact on me that led to my interest in feminist issues. Um one of the things that I talk about in the preface of the book was growing up in an atmosphere where women had equal rights and there was certainly a rhetoric that women could achieve everything. But at the same time looking around and seeing um there was a pressure for little girls to think about marriage, to think about um their future is leading to marriage as opposed Is that on a career? And at the same time seeing that there was a kind of social inequality in a lot of the marriages around me, where for example, um, you know, the adult um men that I knew as a small child might be lawyers or doctors or educators, and their wives might have given up their um job, they might have had a profession before marriage, but given it up or
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What cultural assumptions about marriage does the host introduce at the start of the episode?
0:04–17:56
2
How does Elizabeth Brake describe her early life and what sparked her interest in feminist ethics?
17:56–40:19
3
What are the main moral criticisms of marriage that Brake raises in Part 1 of her book?
40:19–53:46
4
How does Brake argue that wedding vows are not genuine promises to love?
53:46–1:04:35
5
What does Brake identify as the key legal and political benefits tied to traditional marriage?
1:04:35–1:05:18
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