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Criticisms of marriage are arguments against the practical or moral value of the institution of matrimony or particular forms of matrimony. These have included the effects that marriage has on individual liberty, equality between the sexes, the relation between marriage and violence, philosophical questions about how much control can a government have over its population, the amount of control a person has over another, the financial risk when measured against the divorce rate, and questioning of the necessity to have a relationship sanctioned by government or religious authorities. ==History== In 380 BC, Plato criticised marriage in the ''Republic''. He stated that the idea of marriage was a "natural enemy" of the "commonwealth," aiming for its own higher unity.〔Sue Asscher, and David Widger (2008), ( The Republic by Plato. ) The Project Gutenberg EBook. Retrieved August 3, 2013.〕 In the industrial age a number of notable women writers including Sarah Fielding, Mary Hays, and Mary Wollstonecraft, raised complaints that marriage in their own societies could be characterized as little more than a state of "legal prostitution" with underprivileged women signing in to support themselves.〔Jessica Spector (2006), (Prostitution and Pornography. ) Stanford University Press, p. 51. Retrieved August 3, 2013.〕 Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian wrote that marriage is also found to be often at odds with community, diminishing ties to relatives, neighbors, and friends.〔Naomi Gerstel & Natalia Sarkisian, ''Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy'', in (''The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-First Century'' ) by Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz.〕 According to Dan Moller's "Bachelor's Argument", modern marriage can be compared to the act of "forging professional credentials." Over 40 percent of them fail and therefore should be avoided similar to any high-risk venture.〔Dan Moller, ''An Argument Against Marriage'' in (''Minimizing Marriage'' ) by Elizabeth Brake; also in ''Philosophy'', vol. 78, issue 303, Jan., 2003, p. 79 ''ff.'' (author of Princeton Univ.), responded to in Landau, Iddo, ''An Argument for Marriage'', in ''Philosophy'', vol. 79, issue 309, Jul., 2004, p. 475 ''ff.'' (commentary) (author of Haifa Univ., Israel), the latter responded to in Moller, Dan, ''The Marriage Commitment—Reply to Landau'', in ''Philosophy'', vol. 80, issue 312, Apr., 2005, p. 279 ''ff.'' (commentary) (author of Princeton Univ.).〕 Commentators have often been critical of individual local practices and traditions, leading to historical changes. Examples include the early Catholic Church's efforts to eliminate concubinage and temporary marriage, the Protestant acceptance of divorce, and the abolition of laws against inter-faith and inter-race marriages in the western countries. The decision not to marry is a presumed consequence of Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy. His well-documented relationship with Regine Olsen is a subject of study in existentialism, as he called off their engagement despite mutual love. Kierkegaard seems to have loved Regine but was unable to reconcile the prospect of marriage with his vocation as a writer and his passionate and introspective Christianity. A similar argument is found in Franz Kafka's journal entry titled "Summary of all the arguments for and against my marriage": I must be alone a great deal. What I accomplished was only the result of being alone.〔Kafka, Franz. Summary of all the arguments for and against my marriage: From Kafka's Diaries, 12 July 1912...()()〕 As a high-profile couple, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir always expressed opposition to marriage. Brian Sawyer says "Marriage, understood existentially, proposes to join two free selves into one heading, thus denying the freedom, the complete foundation, of each self."〔(Sawyer, Brian )〕 Presently, the high divorce rates are leading to questioning of the purpose of marriage. Some contemporary critics of marriage question why governments (in Western countries) continue to support marriage, when it has such a high failure rate. Anthropologist Lionel Tiger wrote: :"It is astonishing that, under the circumstances, marriage is still legally allowed. If nearly half of anything else ended so disastrously, the government would surely ban it immediately. If half the tacos served in restaurants caused dysentery, if half the people learning karate broke their palms, if only 6 percent of people who went on roller coaster rides damaged their middle ears, the public would be clamoring for action. Yet the most intimate of disasters...happens over and over again." In response to the passage of California Proposition 22 and the current controversy regarding same-sex unions in the United States, a group of people have banded together to boycott marriage until all people can legally marry. The argument is that since marriage is not an inclusive institution of society, the members of the boycott refuse to support the institution as it exists.〔〔 In the West, cohabitation and births outside marriage are becoming more common. In the United States, conservative and religious commentators are highly critical of this trend. They are also often critical of present day marriage law and the ease of divorce. John Witte, Jr., Professor of Law and director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University, argues that contemporary liberal attitudes toward marriage produce a family that is "haphazardly bound together in the common pursuit of selfish ends" exactly as prophesied by Nietzsche.〔Witte Jr., John (1997). ''From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition.'' Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 0-664-25543-4〕 In his ''From Sacrament to Contract'', Witte has argued that John Stuart Mill's secular and ''contractarian'' model of marriage, developed during the Enlightenment, provided the theoretical justification for the present-day transformation of Anglo-American marriage law, promoting unqualified "right to divorce" on plaintiff's demand, one-time division of property, and child custody without regard for marital misconduct. A Catholic professor Romano Cessario, in a review of Witte’s book published in an ecumenical journal the ''First Things'', suggested that a solution to the current crisis of marriage in the West, could come from the possible revival of the sacramental marriage among Christians, thus counterbalancing Nietzsche's pessimism (as echoed by Witte). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Criticism of marriage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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