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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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2011

Series

Political Science

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Culture

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Family: What Is To Be Done?, Scott Yenor Jun 2011

The Family: What Is To Be Done?, Scott Yenor

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We have seen how the logic of contract and the movement to conquer nature have resulted in a triumph of autonomy and the demise of family. The family thus stands in need of a defense. Defense of the family means defense of an institution, and that defense requires some defense of the nature that these institutions react to and reflect. This is where contemporary advocates have focused their attention. Both the modern principles—the principle of contract and the move to conquer nature—are partial truths, and it is best to understand how they each fit into a proper understanding of married …


The Family's End, Scott Yenor Jun 2011

The Family's End, Scott Yenor

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Family decline appears to be inevitable when viewed with a long perspective. The family has been progressively differentiated from institutions that now accomplish what was formerly within the provenance of the family. The city's gods, and eventually the Church, replaced ancestral gods. The marketplace, and eventually the modern economy, replaced the family as the unit of economic production. The city replaced primitive patriarchy. Slowly, and more controversially, the state has come to fulfill increasing portions of the family’s educational mission. Even the family’s "provision of social services" has come, more and more, to be a state concern. This "loss of …